- Table View
- List View
Socially-critical Environmental Education in Primary Classrooms
by Jane EdwardsThe effectiveness of Education for Sustainable Development depends on the ability of schools and teachers to embrace pedagogies that reduce the gap between the rhetoric of education for the environment and the reality of classroom practices. This book responds to the need to better understand the nature of the relationships between agency and structure that contribute to the development of educational rhetoric-reality gaps in order to inform processes that most effectively facilitate pedagogical change. This book explores the issues of pedagogical change through the experiences of Australian primary school teachers faced with the challenge of implementing an environmental education program in which young students were positioned as active participants in the social processes from which environmentally sustainable practices could be developed. These teachers were required to adopt pedagogies that often represented the antithesis of their well-established teacher-directed approaches. Through the use of Anthony Giddens' Theory of Structuration this book provides unique perspectives of the teacher mediated manner in which certain elements of structure and agency interrelate to enable and constrain classroom practices--essential understandings for school principals and educational policy developers who aim to effectively implement pedagogical change. This book also demonstrates that the Theory of Structuration provides a valuable ontological research framework, and provides social researchers with practical guidance for how to relate this theory to specific research issues.
Societal Challenges and Opportunities of Low-Carbon Energy Transformations
by Dalia StreimikieneLow-carbon energy transformations to support carbon-neutral societies is an important and urgent topic and subject to current national priorities and socio-economic planning. This book addresses the societal challenges and opportunities that come with the transition in EU member states such as energy poverty and inequality, energy security, gender inequality, energy efficiency improvements, climate change mitigation, growth in green investments, etc. It contains a balanced approach of theoretical concepts with an impressive range of relevant case studies to investigate the issues, develop indicator frameworks, identify barriers and drivers, and create policies and measures to unlock opportunities.Features: Addresses systematically and comprehensively the low-carbon energy transition, its barriers, and its societal implications. Discusses the main societal challenges and opportunities of low-carbon energy transition from theoretical and practical points of view. Provides definitions of concepts, measurement indicators, policies, and a framework for overcoming barriers and enforcing drivers. Includes case studies on low-carbon energy transition challenges and opportunities that are developed for EU countries. Encourages discussion on policies and measures necessary to overcome identified barriers and proposes how to promote a just and smooth low-carbon energy transition. This book is a great reference for academics, researchers, graduate students, and professionals such as energy producers, city planners, policymakers, etc. interested in current and emerging trends in sustainable energy.
Societal Dimensions of Environmental Science: Global Case Studies of Collaboration and Transformation
by Ricardo D. LopezSocietal Dimensions of Environmental Science: Global Case Studies of Collaboration and Transformation, brings together several key examples of the successes and the challenges that exist for environmental stakeholders trying to strike a balance between science and the societal implications of the issues involved. This book provides important methods and approaches necessary for informed decision making and a better understanding of the common threads of learning, collaboration, negotiation, and compromise. It also explains that concepts and skills needed to better understand how specific project goals can be best achieved in the rapidly changing field of environmental management, by providing practical situations and solutions, across a global landscape. This book provides anyone who works in a community setting with the necessary tools and strategies for solving environmental problems and achieving the goals of an environmental project of any type and specifically addresses the topic of how to synthesize community engagement and the environmental science. It describes current environmental issues and lessons learned of what works and what doesn’t work in real situations, and why. It also highlights key examples, which can be used by both management practitioners and research scientists in their specific circumstances. Showcasing a unique compilation of the diverse and specific examples from societies in Asia, Oceania, North America, and the Middle East, with an equally diverse array of authorship, this book serves all policy makers, scientists, organizers, and community members that desire to build better group dynamics for addressing environmental issues.
Society 5.0: A People-centric Super-smart Society
by Hitachi-UTokyo LaboratoryThis open access book introduces readers to the vision on future cities and urban lives in connection with “Society 5.0”, which was proposed in the 5th Basic Science and Technology Plan by Japan’s national government for a technology-based, human-centered society, emerging from the fourth industrial revolution. The respective chapters summarize the findings and suggestions of joint research projects conducted by H-UTokyo Lab. Through the research collaboration and discussion, this book explores the future urban lives under the concept of “Society 5.0”, characterized by the key phrases of data-driven society, knowledge-intensive society, and non-monetary society, and suggests the directionality to which the concept should aim as Japan’s technology-led national vision. Written by Hitachi’s researchers as well as academics from a wide range of fields, including engineering, economics, psychology and philosophy at The University of Tokyo, the book is a must read for members of the general public interested in urban planning, students, professionals and researchers in engineering and economics.
Society and the Environment
by Michael CarolanTalking about global environmental issues need not be an exercise in gloom, doom, and individual sacrifice-as Michael Carolan ably demonstrates in this introduction to environmental sociology.Society and the Environment examines today's environmental controversies within a socio-organizational context. After outlining the contours of "pragmatic environmentalism," Carolan explores the material world: air, water, biodiversity, and trash. He considers the pressures that exist where ecology and society collide, such as population growth and its associated increased demands for food and energy. Finally, he drills into the social/structural dynamics-including political economy and the international legal system-that create ongoing momentum for environmental ills.This interdisciplinary text features a three-part structure in each chapter that covers "fast facts" about the issue at hand, examines its wide-ranging implications, and offers pragmatic consideration of possible real-world solutions. Bolstering the analysis, a variety of boxes highlight relevant case studies as well as the value judgments which lurk everywhere in talk about environmental phenomena. Discussion questions and key terms enhance the text's usefulness, making Society and the Environment the perfect learning tool for courses on environmental sociology.
Society and the Environment: Pragmatic Solutions to Ecological Issues
by Michael S CarolanThe fourth edition of Society and the Environment centers its discussion on realistic solutions to the problems that persist and examines current controversies within a socio‑organizational context, shifting focus away from simply explaining what is wrong with the world around us. Introducing this “pragmatic environmentalism,” Carolan discusses the complex pressures and variables that exist where ecology and society collide, with population growth, the increase in demands for food and energy, and transportation and its outsized influence on urban and community patterns. With further attention given to the social phenomena and structural dynamics driving today’s environmental problems, the book concludes with an important reflection on truly sustainable solutions and what constitutes meaningful social change.Each chapter in this interdisciplinary text follows a three‑part structure beginning with an overview of what is wrong and why. This leads into a discussion on each issue’s wide‑ranging implications and, finally, a balanced consideration of realistic solutions. Featuring updated and expanded examples, discussion points, and coverage of recent developments, including the US withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, “booming” national economies and wealth distribution, growing global interest in environmental justice—with particular focus on the links between injustice and race and inequality—climate change, and renewable energy, this new edition remains an essential companion for courses on environmental sociology and sustainability.
Society, Environment and Human Security in the Arctic Barents Region (Routledge Explorations in Environmental Studies)
by Kamrul Hossain Dorothée CambouThe Arctic-Barents Region is facing numerous pressures from a variety of sources, including the effect of environmental changes and extractive industrial developments. The threats arising out of these pressures result in human security challenges. This book analyses the formation, and promotion, of societal security within the context of the Arctic-Barents Region. It applies the human security framework, which has increasingly gained currency at the UN level since 1994 (UNDP), as a tool to provide answers to many questions that face the Barents population today. The study explores human security dimensions such as environmental security, economic security, health, food, water, energy, communities, political security and digital security in order to assess the current challenges that the Barents population experiences today or may encounter in the future. In doing so, the book develops a comprehensive analysis of vulnerabilities, challenges and needs in the Barents Region and provides recommendations for new strategies to tackle insecurity and improve the wellbeing of both indigenous and local communities. This book will be a valuable tool for academics, policy-makers and students interested in environmental and human security, sustainable development, environmental studies and the Arctic and Barents Region in particular.
Socio-ecological Studies in Natural Protected Areas: Linking Community Development and Conservation in Mexico
by Alfredo Ortega-RubioThis book explores the interactions of local inhabitants and environmental systems in the Protected Natural Areas of Mexico. Its goal is to help understand how social groups contextualize ecological knowledge, how human activities contribute to modifying the environmental matrix, how cultural and economic aspects influence the use, management and conservation of their ecological environment, and how social phenomena are to be viewed against the backdrop of ecological knowledge.The book reviews the epistemological and historical bases of the socio-ecological relationship, and addresses the evolution of human-natural systems. From a methodological standpoint, it assesses the tools required for the integration of “human” and “natural” dimensions in the management of the environmental matrix. Further, in the case studies section, it reviews valuable recent experiences concerning the retro-interactions of local inhabitants with their environmental matrix. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable asset for researchers and professionals all over the world, especially those working in Latin American countries.
Socio-Ecological Systems and Decoloniality: Convergence of Indigenous and Western Knowledge
by Deepa Pullanikkatil Kerry HughesThis contributed volume provides case studies from around the world that feature a convergence of indigenous and western knowledge in an attempt to understand complex socio-ecological systems. The book provides an understanding of socio-ecological systems in an ethical space using a 'Decoloniality' approach (i.e. untangling the production of knowledge from a primarily Eurocentric episteme). The work presented here integrates and merges indigenous knowledge with western science, thereby building on the strengths of each in service of understanding these systems. The editors of this volume approach indigenous communities and scientists as equal knowledge-holders and, in doing so, contributes towards improved understanding of socio-ecological systems and interactions in cross-cultural contexts. This volume will be of interest to scientists, instructors, students and policy makers across disciplines such as environmental sciences, social sciences, interdisciplinary studies, cultural studies, ethnobotany, anthropology and plant genetic resources.
Socio-economic and Eco-biological Dimensions in Resource use and Conservation: Strategies for Sustainability (Environmental Science and Engineering)
by Sunil Nautiyal Niranjan Roy Shubhadeep Roychoudhury Sunil K. Agarwal Sangeeta BaksiThis book presents the outcomes of the 2017 national workshop and international conference organized by CEENR of ISEC, Bengaluru and Assam University Silchar. Addressing the threats to biodiversity and sustainable development resulting from the impacts of human induced pressures on ecosystems and global-warming-driven climate change is a major challenge. It requires increased knowledge and an enhanced information base in order to devise local policies to improve the adaptive capacity of vulnerable socio-ecological systems in developing countries. In this context, the book presents research that has the potential to benefit the environment and empower communities. It appeals to researchers investigating diverse aspects of socio-ecological-biological systems to create strategies for resource use, conservation and management to ensure sustainability.
Socio-Economic Insecurity in Emerging Economies: Building new spaces (Routledge Explorations in Development Studies)
by Khayaat Fakier Ellen EhmkeTaking a unique comparative approach to the respective development paths of India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA), this book shows that people and governments in all three countries are faced with similar challenges of heightened insecurity, caused by liberalization and structural adjustment. The ways in which governments, as well as individuals and worker organisations in IBSA have responded to these challenges are at the core of this book. The book explores the nature of insecurity in the Global South; the nature of the responses to this insecurity on public and small-scale collective as well as individual level; the potential of these responses to be more than neo-liberal mechanisms to govern and contain the poor and lessons to be learnt from these three countries. The first section covers livelihood strategies in urban and rural areas as individual and small-scale collective response to the condition of insecurity. Insecurity in the countries of the South is characterised by a high degree of uncertainty of the availability of income opportunities. The second section looks at state responses to insecurity and contributions on social protection measures taken by the respective IBSA governments. The third section discusses whether alternative development paths can be identified. The aim is to move beyond ‘denunciatory analysis.’ Livelihood strategies as well as public policies in some of the cases allow for the building of new spaces for agency and contestation of a neo-liberal mainstream which provide emerging and experimental examples. The book develops new thinking on Northern welfare states and their declining trade unions. It argues that these concepts, knowledge and policy innovations are now travelling in three directions, from North to South, from South to North, and between Southern countries. This book provides unique insights for researchers and postgraduate students in development studies, social policy and industrial sociology.
Socio-Economic Issues of Climate Change: A Livelihood Analysis from Nepal
by Luni Piya Keshav Lall Maharjan Niraj Prakash JoshiThis book conducts a holistic analysis of climate change perceptions, vulnerabilities, impacts, and adaptation, based on the primary household-data collected from the Chepang community residing in the rural Mid-Hills of Nepal. Socio-economic and demographic data from the household survey is integrated with meteorological and spatial data to conduct an integrated analysis. Quantitative analysis is also supplemented by qualitative information. Given the context of ongoing climate change, the livelihoods issues of a highly marginalized Chepang community form the center-point of analysis. The book demonstrates that balanced assets possession is a prerequisite to strengthen the adaptive capacity of the households. Furthermore, the ability of translating adaptive capacity into adaptation actions is determined by the households’ ability to correctly perceive the changes and their access to various assets. The book recommends to ensure the availability of non-farm livelihood opportunities along with access to formal/vocational education and skill development training as these are the key factors contributing to reduce the vulnerability. The book concludes that mainstreaming of climate change into development efforts is a must for sustainable development.
Socio-Environmental Crisis in Women’s Novels and Films in The Americas: The Poetics of Environmental Destruction, Care, and Insurgency (Routledge Research in Women's Literature)
by null Victoria JaraThe climate crisis has reached a critical point, necessitating urgent global action. Women’s activism against environmental dispossession in the Americas manifests not only in protests and classrooms but also through artistic filmmaking and writing. This book focuses on the overlooked contributions of women filmmakers and novelists, highlighting how their work reveals the connections between environmental dispossession and various injustices related to gender, ethnicity, age, class, and labor. It demonstrates that contemporary women in the Americas engage deeply with ecological issues, analyzing their representations and identifying common principles across texts. Using an interdisciplinary approach from environmental humanities, gender and Indigenous studies, and film and literary studies, the author compares works from Canada and Latin America. Three poetics emerge: environmental destruction critiques harmful development; care expands notions of reciprocity beyond the human; and insurgency showcases struggles against extractivist models. These works invite readers to understand the complex interconnections of environmental justice within society.
Socio-Metabolic Perspectives on the Sustainability of Local Food Systems: Insights for Science, Policy and Practice (Human-Environment Interactions #7)
by Simron J. Singh Willi Haas Eva FraňkováThis book delves into diverse local food systems and critically assesses their ecological and societal benefits and trade-offs, their limits and opportunities for improving sustainability of food production, and framework conditions which either hinder or promote their development. More and more people with gradually meat heavier diets will demand growth in food production, whilst our increasingly industrialized and globalized agri-food system has already caused serious sustainability problems in the past. This calls for a change in the way we produce, distribute and consume food. A re-emerging debate on food security and food sovereignty seems to support this quest. But what are the promising alternatives to mainstream developments? Such a discussion regarding sustainability of local food systems requires a sound systemic understanding and thus invites a socio-metabolic reading of local cases by analyzing the nexus between material and energy flows as well as land and time use. This approach is needed to complement the so far mostly qualitatively-based local food studies. Applying socio-metabolic approaches to local food systems fosters a better understanding of promises and pitfalls for sustainable pathways in the future.
Socioeconomic Evaluation of Megaprojects: Dealing with uncertainties (Routledge Explorations in Environmental Studies)
by Markku Lehtonen Pierre-Benoît Joly Luis AparicioThe governance and evaluation of ‘megaprojects’ – that is, large-scale, complex, high-stakes infrastructure projects usually commissioned by governments and delivered through partnerships between public and private organisations – is receiving increased attention. However, megaproject evaluation has hitherto largely adopted a linear-rationalist perspective to explain the frequent failure of such projects to meet the ‘iron triangle’ of performance criteria: delivering on time, within budget, and according to specifications. This approach recommends greater control and accountability to remedy megaproject ‘pathologies’. Drawing on empirical examples mainly from the transport sector and radioactive waste disposal, this book offers new perspectives to megaproject evaluation. Comprising contributions from leading experts in project evaluation and appraisal, this collection opens up new avenues by suggesting two ways of improving megaproject evaluation: 1) approaches that go beyond the dominant linearrationalist notion of policy processes, and emphasise instead the objective of opening up appraisal processes in order to enhance learning and reflexivity; and 2) approaches that extend evaluative criteria beyond the ‘iron triangle’, to cover the various socioeconomic impacts and preconditions for project success. This volume will be of great relevance to scholars and practitioners with an interest in megaprojects, energy and climate policy, radioactive waste management, urban design, and project planning and management.
A Sociolegal Analysis of Formal Land Tenure Systems: Learning from the Political, Legal and Institutional Struggles of Timor-Leste (Law, Development and Globalization)
by Bernardo Ribeiro AlmeidaThis sociolegal study focuses on the political, legal and institutional problems and dilemmas of regulating land tenure. By studying the development of the Timorese formal land tenure system, this book engages in the larger debate about the role of state systems in addressing and aggravating social problems such as insecurity, poverty, inequality, destruction of nature, and cultural and social estrangement. Land tenure issues in Timor-Leste are complex and deeply shaped by the nation’s history. Taking an insider’s perspective based on the author’s experience in Timorese state administration, and through the investigation of five analytical themes –political environment, lawmaking, legal framework, institutional framework, and social relationships and practices– this book studies the development of the Timorese formal land tenure system from independence in 2002 to 2018. It shows how political, legal, and administrative decisions on land administration are made, what and who influences them, which problems and dilemmas emerge, and how the formal system works in practice. The result is a portrait of a young nation grappling with the enormous task of creating a land tenure system that can address the needs of its citizens in the wake of centuries of socio-political tumult and huge fluctuations in resources. The book concludes by highlighting the importance of lawmaking and how abuses of power can be curbed by adequate administrative processes and laws. Finally, it argues that land administration is primarily a political matter. The political dimension of technical solutions must be considered if we aim to achieve fairer formal land tenure systems. The pertinence of the topics covered, the multi-disciplinary perspective, and the research methodology followed make this book appealing to a variety of readers, including international organizations, practitioners, academics and students engaged in land administration, post-colonial and -conflict issues, lawmaking, rule of law, public administration and issues of access and exclusion.
The Sociology of Farming: Concepts and Methods (Earthscan Food and Agriculture)
by Jan Douwe van der PloegThis book provides a detailed and comprehensive introduction to the concepts and methods of the sociology of farming. The sociology of farming focuses on co-production: the ongoing interaction and mutual transformation of the natural and the social (of ‘human and living nature’) which requires putting the farm labour process centre stage. While there are many books which discuss food and agriculture, this book is different: it delves into the methods and concepts used and presents a comprehensive conceptual framework and the associated methods for research to give students and researchers of agriculture and rural studies a solid set of tools for unravelling the complexities of farming and rural life. Importantly, these tools also empower us to design new ways forward. A wide array of case studies, as wide-ranging as Brazil, Peru, China, the Netherlands, Italy and Guinea Bissau, help readers to grasp the commonalities that underlie strongly diversified and divided rural worlds. The book lists over two hundred basic concepts and includes boxes that discuss the main methods of the sociology of farming. This textbook is essential reading for students and scholars of food and agriculture, agrarian studies, rural development, food and farming systems, peasant studies and environmental sociology.
Sociology of Interdisciplinarity: The Dynamics of Energy Research
by Antti Silvast Chris FouldsThis Open Access book builds upon Science and Technology Studies (STS) and provides a detailed examination of how large-scale energy research projects have been conceived, and with what consequences for those involved in interdisciplinary research, which has been advocated as the zenith of research practice for many years, quite often in direct response to questions that cannot be answered (or even preliminarily investigated) by disciplines working separately. It produces fresh insights into the lived experiences and actual contents of interdisciplinarity, rather than simply commentating on how it is being explicitly advocated. We present empirical studies on large-scale energy research projects from the United Kingdom, Norway, and Finland. The book presents a new framework, the Sociology of Interdisciplinarity, which unpacks interdisciplinary research in practice. This book will be of interest to all those interested in well-functioning interdisciplinary research systems and the dynamics of doing interdisciplinarity, including real ground-level experiences and institutional interdependencies.
Sociology, Organic Farming, Climate Change and Soil Science
by Eric LichtfouseSustainable agriculture is a rapidly growing field aiming at producing food and energy in a sustainable way for humans and their children. Sustainable agriculture is a discipline that addresses current issues such as climate change, increasing food and fuel prices, poor-nation starvation, rich-nation obesity, water pollution, soil erosion, fertility loss, pest control, and biodiversity depletion. Novel, environmentally-friendly solutions are proposed based on integrated knowledge from sciences as diverse as agronomy, soil science, molecular biology, chemistry, toxicology, ecology, economy, and social sciences. Indeed, sustainable agriculture decipher mechanisms of processes that occur from the molecular level to the farming system to the global level at time scales ranging from seconds to centuries. For that, scientists use the system approach that involves studying components and interactions of a whole system to address scientific, economic and social issues. In that respect, sustainable agriculture is not a classical, narrow science. Instead of solving problems using the classical painkiller approach that treats only negative impacts, sustainable agriculture treats problem sources. Because most actual society issues are now intertwined, global, and fast-developing, sustainable agriculture will bring solutions to build a safer world. This book series gathers review articles that analyze current agricultural issues and knowledge, then propose alternative solutions. It will therefore help all scientists, decision-makers, professors, farmers and politicians who wish to build a safe agriculture, energy and food system for future generations.
Sociology Saves the Planet: An Introduction to Socioecological Thinking and Practice (Routledge Explorations in Environmental Studies)
by Thomas MaciasHighlighting how the environment and society are intrinsically linked, this book argues that environmental concerns need to be treated as a core concept in the study of sociology. Given its focus on inequality and the constituent elements of the social world, sociology has often been accused of negligence regarding the urgency of the world’s environmental crisis. Sociology Saves the Planet corrects this mis-perception by integrating the theme of environment and society to highlight the intrinsic value a sociological perspective brings to our understanding of the current ecological crisis. The author first draws out the origins of sociology in the social and ecological transformations of the industrial revolution. In accounting for the social upheavals of the 19th century, Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx, and Max Weber all provided key insights into the changing nature of human organization and exploitation of the natural world. Second, readers will explore sociological perspectives developed since that time, grounded in evidence-based research, which highlight the inextricable connection between environment and society. Special attention is devoted to the dual role of people as producers and consumers in the modern context. Lastly, this book examines the significance of major categories of social difference regarding the current environmental crisis. In that regard the question of environmental justice is paramount, illuminating both the disproportionate benefit of natural resource exploitation to those countries and individuals with higher socioeconomic status, and the greater exposure to environmental hazard among those with less. Averting global calamity requires we recognize the unequal social impacts of the environmental crisis while valorizing inclusivity and the diversity of human experience in our search for solutions. Designed for introductory courses, this book is essential reading for sociology students and will be of interest to students and academics studying environment and sustainability more broadly.
Soda Lakes of East Africa
by Michael SchagerlThis book is devoted to the alkaline-salinelakes of East Africa, which include the world-famous "flamingo lakes". Itcovers the full range of issues, from the lakes' origin and history, life inand around these unique water bodies, to utilization, threats and managementconsiderations. The authors, all of whom are leading international experts,summarize research done so far, highlight new and important findings, andprovide future outlooks. The book is divided into three main sections:"Genesis, physics and chemistry" tackles lake development and the astoundingphysico-chemistry of the lakes. "Organisms and ecology" presents informationabout the many lake inhabitants, their interactions and adaptations to theextreme living conditions. "Utilization, management and perspectives" addressesthreats such as lake exploitation and pollution, but also considers potentialuses. This book will be particularly relevant to researchers and lecturers inthe field of limnology and aquatic ecology, but is also designed to attract allthose interested in nature and life on our planet.
Soft Computing and Fuzzy Methodologies in Innovation Management and Sustainability (Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems #337)
by Ernesto León-Castro Fabio Blanco-Mesa Victor Alfaro-García Anna Maria Gil-Lafuente José M. Merigó Janusz KacprzykThis book provides recent research on soft computing and fuzzy methodologies in innovation management and sustainability. The uncertainty in the business world is increasing. Significant changes are generated unexpectedly, so using fuzzy logic and soft computing methods allows us to create flexible scenarios adaptable to new realities. Within the book, we will find different applications of fuzzy methodologies that can apply to various topics such as sustainability, innovation, tourism, costs, exports, systems administration, among others. The book's main contribution is the applicability of the various methodologies to specific cases, which allows generating a relationship between theory and practice. In addition, it has some bibliometric studies on various topics that give us a visualization of what has happened and where multiple topics are headed. This book is recommended mainly for students who wish to know how the various fuzzy and soft computing tools can be taken to real situations, allowing a better understanding of these and generating new visions of future applicability.
The Soggy, Foggy Campout (Here's Hank #8)
by Henry Winkler Scott Garrett Lin OliverHere's Hank, the bestselling series written by Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver, is the perfect series for the transitional reader--easy-to-read font, simple and funny stories, and characters every kid would want to be friends with."We Love Nature Day" is fast approaching, and everyone in Hank's class gets to write and perform a poem. One problem: Hank has no idea where to start. Luckily his mom has a great idea--the family will go camping. Out in nature, Hank will be able to find plenty of inspiration. But when a rainstorm threatens to ruin their night, it's up to Hank to make sure the night doesn't turn into a soggy, foggy failure. Can he find the words for his nature poem--and the courage to help his family survive the night?From the Trade Paperback edition.
Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden
by Camille T DungyA &“heartfelt and thoroughly enriching&” (Aimee Nezhukumatathil, New York Times bestselling author of World of Wonders) work that expands on how we talk about the natural world and the environment as National Book Critics Circle finalist Camille T. Dungy diversifies her garden to reflect her heritage.In Soil: The Story of a Black Mother&’s Garden poet and scholar Camille T. Dungy recounts the seven-year odyssey to diversify her garden in the predominantly white community of Fort Collins, Colorado. When she moved there in 2013, with her husband and daughter, the community held strict restrictions about what residents could and could not plant in their gardens. In resistance to the homogenous policies that limited the possibility and wonder that grows from the earth, Dungy employs the various plants, herbs, vegetables, and flowers she grows in her garden as metaphor and treatise for how homogeneity threatens the future of our planet, and why cultivating diverse and intersectional language in our national discourse about the environment is the best means of protecting it. &“Brilliant and beautiful&” (Ross Gay, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Delights), Soil functions as the nexus of nature writing, environmental justice, and prose to encourage you to recognize the relationship between the people of the African diaspora and the land on which they live, and to understand that wherever soil rests beneath their feet is home.
Soil
by Håkan WallanderHåkan Wallander is a professor in Soil Biology and the reader is guided through the fascinating world below ground. The book has a free form and the author mixes scientific facts with personal stories from active research experiences and everyday life. The main focus is to make the reader aware of the vast biodiversity that exists in the soil, and to describe the important processes provided by the soil organisms. Reflections are made on how dependent we are on living soils, and how vulnerable the soil is if managed in a wrong way. The importance of soils as carbon sinks and reflections about the possible influence of soils for taste and quality of food and wine is also covered. The book is illustrated with photographs and every picture has a legend that stands on its own. In this way the reader will have an easy way into the book, and the main aim is to gain new readers to a subject that is immensely important, but not very attractive to laypersons.