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The Upstate (Phoenix Poets)
by Lindsay TurnerPoetry that sings of southern Appalachian beauty and crisis. Set in a landscape of red sunsets and wildfire smoke, Queen Anne’s lace on the roadsides, and toxic chemicals in the watershed, Lindsay Turner’s The Upstate is a book about southern Appalachia in a contemporary moment of change and development. Layering a personal lyric voice with a broader awareness of labor issues and political and ecological crises, The Upstate redefines a regional poetics as one attuned to national and global systems. These poems observe and emote, mourning acts of devastation and raging in their own quiet way against their continuation. The poems in The Upstate arise from moments of darkness and desperation, mobilizing a critical intelligence against the status quo of place and history, all while fiercely upholding belief in the role of poetry to affect these conditions. Turner’s poems weave spells around beloved places and people, yearning to shield them from destruction and to profess faith in the delicate beauties of the world at hand.
The Urban Beekeeper: A Year of Bees in the City
by Steve BenbowAt a time when the UK bee population is in decline there's no better way to make a difference than to start up your own beehive. Steve Benbow's enormous success with urban beekeeping show's how easy it is to keep bees, whether you're in the city or in the countryside, a beginner or an experienced beekeeper, and you'll never look back once you've tasted your very own sticky, golden honey, or lit a candle made from the beeswax from your beehive.Steve Benbow is a visionary beekeeper who started his first beehive ten years ago on the roof of his tower block in Bermondsey and today runs 30 sites across the city. His bees live atop the Tate Modern and Tate Britain, Fortnum & Mason and the National Portrait Gallery, and he supplies honey to the Savoy tearooms, Harvey Nichols, Harrods and delis across London. His bees forage in parks, cemeteries, along railway lines and in window boxes, and because of the diversity of the plants and trees in the city, produce far richer honey and greater yields than they would in rural areas.The Urban Beekeeper is a fact-filled diary and practical guide to beekeeping that follows a year in the life of Steve and his bees and shows how keeping bees and making your own delicious honey is something anyone can do. It is a tempting glimpse into a sunlit lifestyle that starts with the first rays of the morning and ends with the warm glow of sunset, filled with oozing honeycomb, recipes for sensational honey-based dishes, and honey that tastes like sunshine. A hugely affectionate but practical diary of a beekeeper's year and the immense satisfaction of harvesting your own delicious honey. Read it and join the revolution.
The Urban Climate Challenge: Rethinking the Role of Cities in the Global Climate Regime (Cities and Global Governance)
by Craig Johnson Noah Toly Heike SchroederDrawing upon a variety of empirical and theoretical perspectives, The Urban Climate Challenge provides a hands-on perspective about the political and technical challenges now facing cities and transnational urban networks in the global climate regime. Bringing together experts working in the fields of global environmental governance, urban sustainability and climate change, this volume explores the ways in which cities, transnational urban networks and global policy institutions are repositioning themselves in relation to this changing global policy environment. Focusing on both Northern and Southern experience across the globe, three questions that have strong bearing on the ways in which we understand and assess the changing relationship between cities and global climate system are examined. How are cities repositioning themselves in relation to the global climate regime? How are cities being repositioned - conceptually and epistemologically? What are the prospects for crafting policies that can reduce the urban carbon footprint while at the same time building resilience to future climate change? The Urban Climate Challenge will be of interest to scholars of urban climate policy, global environmental governance and climate change. It will be of interest to readers more generally interested in the ways in which cities are now addressing the inter-related challenges of sustainable urban growth and global climate change. Chapter 9 and Chapter 11 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at www.tandfebooks.com/openaccess. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 license.
The Urban Commons: How Data and Technology Can Rebuild Our Communities
by Daniel T. O'BrienThrough voicemail, apps, websites, and Twitter, Boston’s sophisticated 311 system allows citizens to report potholes, broken streetlights, graffiti, and vandalism that affect everyone’s quality of life. Drawing on Boston’s rich data, Daniel T. O’Brien offers a model of what smart technology can do for cities seeking both growth and sustainability.
The Urban Forest
by Liz O'Brien David Pearlmutter Carlo Calfapietra Roeland Samson Silvija Krajter Ostoić Giovanni Sanesi Rocío Alonso del AmoThis book focuses on urban "green infrastructure" - the interconnected web of vegetated spaces like street trees, parks and peri-urban forests that provide essential ecosystem services in cities. The green infrastructure approach embodies the idea that these services, such as storm-water runoff control, pollutant filtration and amenities for outdoor recreation, are just as vital for a modern city as those provided by any other type of infrastructure. Ensuring that these ecosystem services are indeed delivered in an equitable and sustainable way requires knowledge of the physical attributes of trees and urban green spaces, tools for coping with the complex social and cultural dynamics, and an understanding of how these factors can be integrated in better governance practices. By conveying the findings and recommendations of COST Action FP1204 GreenInUrbs, this volume summarizes the collaborative efforts of researchers and practitioners from across Europe to address these challenges.
The Urban Homestead (Expanded & Revised Edition)
by Kelly Coyne Erik KnutzenThe expanded, updated version of the best-selling classic, with a dozen new projects."A delightfully readable and very useful guide to front- and back-yard vegetable gardening, food foraging, food preserving, chicken keeping, and other useful skills for anyone interested in taking a more active role in growing and preparing the food they eat."-BoingBoing.net"...the contemporary bible on the subject."-The New York TimesThis celebrated, essential handbook shows how to grow and preserve your own food, clean your house without toxins, raise chickens, gain energy independence, and more. Step-by-step projects, tips, and anecdotes will help get you started homesteading immediately. The Urban Homestead is also a guidebook to the larger movement and will point you to the best books and Internet resources on self-sufficiency topics.Written by city dwellers for city dwellers, this copiously illustrated, two-color instruction book proposes a paradigm shift that will improve our lives, our community, and our planet. By growing our own food and harnessing natural energy, we are planting seeds for the future of our cities.Learn how to:Grow food on a patio or balconyPreserve or ferment food and make yogurt and cheeseCompost with wormsKeep city chickensDivert your grey water to your gardenClean your house without toxinsGuerilla garden in public spacesCreate the modern homestead of your dreams
The Urban Household Energy Transition: Social and Environmental Impacts in the Developing World
by Douglas F. Barnes William F. Hyde Kerry KrutillaAs cities in developing countries grow and become more prosperous, energy use shifts from fuelwood to fuels like charcoal, kerosene, and coal, and, ultimately, to fuels such as liquid petroleum gas, and electricity. Energy use is not usually considered as a social issue. Yet, as this book demonstrates, the movement away from traditional fuels has a strong socio-economic dimension, as poor people are the last to attain the benefits of using modern energy. The result is that health risks from the continued use of wood fuel fall most heavily on the poor, and indoor pollution from wood stoves has its greatest effect on women and children who cook and spend much more of their time indoors. Barnes, Krutilla, and Hyde provide the first worldwide assessment of the energy transition as it occurs in urban households, drawing upon data collected by the World Bank Energy Sector Management Assistance Programme (ESMAP). From 1984-2000, the program conducted over 25,000 household energy surveys in 45 cities spanning 12 countries and 3 continents. Additionally, GIS mapping software was used to compile a biomass database of vegetation patterns surrounding 34 cities. Using this rich set of geographic, biological, and socioeconomic data, the authors describe problems and policy options associated with each stage in the energy transition. The authors show how the poorest are most vulnerable to changes in energy markets and demonstrate how the collection of biomass fuel contributes to deforestation. Their book serves as an important contribution to development studies, and as a guide for policymakers hoping to encourage sustainable energy markets and an improved quality of life for growing urban populations.
The Urban Naturalist
by Steven D. GarberThis informative, useful field guide reveals the amazing biodiversity within city and suburban landscapes, including trees, insects and other invertebrates, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. The author explains why these organisms live in cities and how they survive, offers tips on which species to look for, and shares hundreds of fascinating facts.
The Urban Naturalist: How to Make the City Your Scientific Playground
by Menno SchilthuizenA manifesto—and a field guide—for a new dawn of natural history, practiced by community scientists in their own urban jungle.Imagine taking your smartphone-turned-microscope to an empty lot and discovering a rare mason bee that builds its nest in empty snail shells. Or a miniature spider that hunts ants and carries their corpses around. With a team of citizen scientists, that&’s exactly what Menno Schilthuizen did—one instance in the evolutionary biologist&’s campaign to take natural science to the urban landscape where most of us live today. In this delightful book, The Urban Naturalist, Schilthuizen invites us to join him, to embark on a new age of discovery, venturing out as intrepid explorers of our own urban habitat—and maybe in the process do the natural world some good.Thanks to the open science revolution, real biological discoveries can now be made by anyone right where they live. Schilthuizen shows readers just how to go about making those discoveries, introducing them to the tools of the trade of the urban community scientist, from the tried and tested (the field notebook, the butterfly net, and the hand lens) to the newfangled (internet resources, low-tech gadgets, and off-the-shelf gizmos). But beyond technology, his book holds the promise of reviving the lost tradition of the citizen scientist—rekindling the spirit of the Victorian naturalist for the modern world.At a time when the only nature most people get to see is urban, The Urban Naturalist demonstrates that understanding the novel ecosystems around us is our best hope for appreciating and protecting biodiversity.
The Urban Struggle for Economic, Environmental and Social Justice: Deepening their roots (Routledge Equity, Justice and the Sustainable City series)
by Malo André HutsonThis book discusses the current demographic shifts of blacks, Latinos, and other people of colour out of certain strong-market cities and the growing fear of displacement among low-income urban residents. It documents these populations' efforts to remain in their communities and highlights how this leads to community organizing around economic, environmental, and social justice. The book shows how residents of once-neglected urban communities are standing up to city economic development agencies, influential real estate developers, universities, and others to remain in their neighbourhoods, protect their interests, and transform their communities into sustainable, healthy communities. These communities are deploying new strategies that build off of past struggles over urban renewal. Based on seven years of research, this book draws on a wealth of material to conduct a case study analysis of eight low-income/mixed-income communities in Boston, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, DC. This timely book is aimed at researchers and postgraduate students interested in urban policy and politics, community development, urban studies, environmental justice, urban public health, sociology, community-based research methods, and urban planning theory and practice. It will also be of interest to policy makers, community activists, and the private sector.
The Urban Tree Book: An Uncommon Field Guide for City and Town
by Arthur PlotnikOpenThe Urban Tree Bookand discover the joys of forest trekking--right in your city or town. This first-of-a-kind field guide introduces readers to the trees on their block, in neighborhood parks, and throughout the urban landscape. Unlike traditional tree guides with dizzying numbers of woodland species, The Urban Tree Book explores nature in the city, describing some 200 tree types likely to be found on North America's streets and surrounding spaces, including suburban settings. With telling descriptions and precise botanical detail, this unique guide not only identifies trees but brings them to life through history, lore, anecdotes, up-to-date facts, and hundreds of fascinating characteristics. More than 175 graceful illustrations capture the charm of trees in urban settings and depict leaf, flower, fruit, and bark features for identification and appreciation. The Urban Tree Bookwill inform even the most knowledgeable plant person and delight urbanites who simply enjoy strolling beneath the shade of welcoming trees. An engaging excursion into the "urban forest," this complete guide to city trees will both entertain and enlighten nature lovers, urban hikers, gardeners, and everyone curious about their environment. Includes a tree planting-and-care section, tree primer, and exploration guide Is backed by the expertise of the renowned Morton Arboretum Incorporates new "urban forestry" perspectives Covers urban trees across the continent Lists key organizations and institutions for tree lovers Selects the best tree sites on the Internet Updates many guides by 20 years
The Urbanization of Green Internationalism (Cities and the Global Politics of the Environment)
by Yonn DierwechterThe recent rise of cities in global environmental politics has stimulated remarkable debates about sustainable urban development and the geopolitics of a changing world order no longer defined by tightly bordered national regimes. This book explores this major theme by drawing on approaches that document the diverse histories and emergent geographies of “internationalism.” It is no longer possible, the book argues, to analyze the global politics of the environment without considering its various urbanization(s), wherein multiple actors are reforming, reassembling and adapting to nascent threats posed by global ecological decay. The ongoing imposition and abrasion of different world orders—Westphalian and post-Westphalian—further suggests we need a wider frame to capture new kinds of urbanized spaces and global green politics. The book will appeal to students, scholars, and practitioners interested in global sustainability, urban development, planning, politics, and international affairs. Case studies and grounded examples of green internationalism in urban action ultimately explore how select city-regions like Cape Town, Los Angeles, and Melbourne are trying to negotiate and actually work through this postulated dilemma.
The Use of Algae in Human Health: From Traditional Medicine to Molecules with Therapeutic Interest (ISTE Invoiced)
by Joël FleurenceThe Use of Algae in Human Health explores the use of algae in traditional Asian medicine, for both preventive and curative purposes. The book looks at both historical and current uses, as algae is still used on an empirical basis in popular medicine in Asia. The first part of this book focuses on the integration of algae into the therapeutic practice of ethnomedicine. The second part focuses on molecules derived from algae, which include fucoidans, alginates, carrageenans and polyphenols; they have been described in the scientific literature as having therapeutic activities both in vitro and in vivo. These varied functions (antitumoral, antiviral, antibacterial, antithrombotic, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant) are of major interest in human health. However, new drugs based on algal molecules are proving slow to develop. The book reviews the scientific, technological and economic obstacles that may explain why development is lagging.
The Use of Biodiversity in International Law: A Genealogy of Genetic Gold (Law, Science and Society)
by Andreas KotsakisThis book presents a legal genealogy of biodiversity – of its strategic use before and after the adoption of the Convention on Biological Diversity, 1993. This history of ‘genetic gold’ details how, with the aid of international law, the idea of biodiversity has been instrumentalized towards political and economic aims. A study of the strategic utility of biodiversity, rather than the utility of its protection under international law, the book’s focus is not, therefore, on the sustainable or non-sustainable use of biodiversity as a natural resource, but rather on its historical use as an intellectual resource. Although biodiversity is still not being effectively conserved, nor sustainably used, the Convention on Biological Diversity and its parent regime persists, now after several decades of operation. This book provides the comprehensive answer to the question of the convention’s continued existence. Drawing from environmental history, the philosophy of science, political economy and development studies, this book will be of interest to advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students in Environmental Law, International Law, Environmental Studies, and Ecology.
The Use of CITES for Commercially-exploited Fish Species
by Solène GuggisbergThis book examines the legality, adequacy and efficacy of using the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) for commercially-exploited fish species and assesses whether the existing institutional cooperation with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) is efficient. This case-study also provides an interesting lens to approaching wider international law issues. Indeed, finding ways to achieve effective governance of transboundary or global natural resources is central to the peaceful use of oceans and land. Furthermore, the role of science in advising decision-makers is a sensitive issue, which deserves scrutiny and is similar in many regimes. Finally, the complex problem of fragmentation of international law is acute in various fields of environmental law, as in all rapidly developing areas of international regulations.
The Value of Species
by Edward L. MccordWe humans value a great variety of plant and animal species for their usefulness to us. But what is the value--if any--of a species that offers no practical use? In the face of accelerating extinctions across the globe, what ought we to do? Amid this sea of losses, what is our responsibility? How do we assess the value of nonhuman species? In this book, naturalist and philosopher Edward L. McCord explores urgent questions about the destruction of species and provides a new framework for appreciating and defending every form of life. The book draws insights from philosophy, ethics, law, and biology to arrive at a new way of thinking about the value of species to humanity is intellectual: individual species are phenomena of such intellectual moment--so interesting in their own right--that they rise above other values and merit enduring human embrace. The author discusses the threats other species confront and delineates the challenges involved in creating any kind of public instrument to protect species.
The Value of the Weather
by W. J. MaunderOriginally published in 1970, this book brings together the most significant and pertinent associations between man’s economic and social activities, and the variations in the atmospheric environment. Particular emphasis is placed on economic activities and the weather, economic analysis of weather and the benefits and costs of weather knowledge. In addition, some of the sociological, physiological, political, planning and legal aspects of atmospheric resources are discussed.
The Vandana Shiva Reader (Culture of the Land)
by Vandana ShivaThe pioneering environmental activist presents her most influential writings—with an informative introduction by Wendell Berry.Motivated by agricultural devastation in her home country of India, Vandana Shiva became one of the world's most influential environmental and anti-globalization activists. Her groundbreaking research has exposed the destructive effects of monocultures and commercial agriculture and revealed the links between ecology, gender, and poverty.In The Vandana Shiva Reader, Shiva assembles her most influential writings, combining trenchant critiques of the corporate monopolization of agriculture with a powerful defense of biodiversity and food democracy. This essential collection demonstrates the full range of Shiva's research and activism, from her condemnation of commercial seed technology, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and the international agriculture industry's dependence on fossil fuels, to her tireless documentation of the extensive human costs of ecological deterioration.This important volume illuminates Shiva's profound understanding of both the perils and potential of our interconnected world and calls on citizens of all nations to renew their commitment to love and care for soil, seeds, and people.
The Vanderbeekers and the Hidden Garden (The Vanderbeekers #2)
by Karina Yan GlaserReturn to Harlem's "wildly entertaining" family in this funny, heartwarming sequel. <P><P> When catastrophe strikes their beloved upstairs neighbors, the Vanderbeeker children set out to build the best, most magical healing garden in Harlem—in spite of a locked fence, thistles and trash, and the conflicting plans of a wealthy real estate developer. While Isa is off at sleepaway orchestra camp, Jessie, Oliver, Hyacinth, and Laney are stuck at home in the brownstone with nothing to do but get on one another’s nerves. <P><P>But when catastrophe strikes their beloved upstairs neighbor, their sleepy summer transforms in an instant as the Vanderbeeker children band together to do what they do best: make a plan. They will create the most magical healing garden in all of Harlem. In this companion to The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street, experience the warmth of a family and their community as they work together to bring a little more beauty and kindness to the world, one thwarted plan at a time. <P><b>A New York Times Bestseller</b>
The Vanishing Face of Gaia: A Final Warning
by James LovelockThe global temperature is rising, the ice caps are melting, and levels of pollution across the world have reached unprecedented heights. According to eminent scientist James Lovelock, in order to survive an assault from her dependents, the Earth is lurching ever closer to a permanent ?hot state. OCO Within the next century, we will almost certainly be forced to give up many of the comforts of western living as supplies are threatened. Only the fittest?and the smartest?will survive. A reluctant jeremiad from one of the environmental movementOCOs elder statesmen, "The Vanishing Face of Gaia" offers an essential wake-up call for the human race.
The Vanishing Manatee
by Margaret Goff ClarkIntroduces the playful manatee and discusses its future and its relationship with humans.
The Vanishing Present: Wisconsin’s Changing Lands, Waters, and Wildlife
by Donald M. Waller Thomas P. RooneyStraddling temperate forests and grassland biomes and stretching along the coastline of two Great Lakes, Wisconsin contains tallgrass prairie and oak savanna, broadleaf and coniferous forests, wetlands, natural lakes, and rivers. But, like the rest of the world, the Badger State has been transformed by urbanization and sprawl, population growth, and land-use change. For decades, industry and environment have attempted to coexist in Wisconsin-- and the dynamic tensions between economic progress and environmental protection makes the state a fascinating microcosm for studying global environmental change. The Vanishing Present brings together a distinguished set of contributors-- including scientists, naturalists, and policy experts-- to examine how human pressures on Wisconsin's changing lands, waters, and wildlife have redefined the state's ecology. Though they focus on just one state, the authors draw conclusions about changes in temperate habitats that can be applied elsewhere, and offer useful insights into future of the ecology, conservation, and sustainability of Wisconsin and beyond. A fitting tribute to the home state of Aldo Leopold and John Muir, The Vanishing Present is an accessible and timely case study of a significant ecosystem and its response to environmental change.
The Vanishing Rainforest
by Richard PlattThis story, told through a child called Remaema, describes how the Yanomami tribe is battling against potential developers.
The Variety of Integral Ecologies: Nature, Culture, and Knowledge in the Planetary Era (SUNY series in Integral Theory)
by Sam Mickey; Sean Kelly; Adam Robbert; Mary Evelyn TuckerIn the current era of increasing planetary interconnectedness, ecological theories and practices are called to become more inclusive, complex, and comprehensive. The diverse contributions to this book offer a range of integral approaches to ecology that cross the boundaries of the humanities and sciences and help us understand and respond to today's ecological challenges. The contributors provide detailed analyses of assorted integral ecologies, drawing on such founding figures and precursors as Thomas Berry, Leonardo Boff, Holmes Rolston III, Ken Wilber, and Edgar Morin. Also included is research across the social sciences, biophysical sciences, and humanities discussing multiple worldviews and perspectives related to integral ecologies. The Variety of Integral Ecologies is both an accessible guide and an advanced supplement to the growing research for a more comprehensive understanding of ecological issues and the development of a peaceful, just, and sustainable planetary civilization.
The Variety of Life
by Nicola DaviesOur planet is full of life! Did you know there are 400,000 species of beetle - but only eight species of bear? This stunning book explores the extraordinary diversity of the natural world and profiles some of its most surprising creatures.A glorious celebration of diversity within the Animal Kingdom by non-fiction specialist Nicola Davies, illustrated by rising star Lorna Scobie. There is something to delight on every page with fascinating facts about mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish and insects. This exquisite book will encourage children to treasure the world's biodiversity and help to stop it slipping away.