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The Way the Wind Blows: Climate, History, and Human Action
by Joseph A. Tainter Susan Keech Mcintosh Roderick J. McintoshScientists and policymakers are beginning to understand in ever-increasing detail that environmental problems cannot be understood solely through the biophysical sciences. Environmental issues are fundamentally human issues and must be set in the context of social, political, cultural, and economic knowledge. The need both to understand how human beings in the past responded to climatic and other environmental changes and to synthesize the implications of these historical patterns for present-day sustainability spurred a conference of the world's leading scholars on the topic. The Way the Wind Blows is the rich result of that conference. Articles discuss the dynamics of climate, human perceptions of and responses to the environment, and issues of sustainability and resiliency. These themes are illustrated through discussions of human societies around the world and throughout history.
The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World (The CBC Massey Lectures)
by Wade DavisEvery culture is a unique answer to a fundamental question: What does it mean to be human and alive? In The Wayfinders, renowned anthropologist, winner of the prestigious Samuel Johnson Prize, and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Wade Davis leads us on a thrilling journey to celebrate the wisdom of the world's indigenous cultures.In Polynesia we set sail with navigators whose ancestors settled the Pacific ten centuries before Christ. In the Amazon we meet the descendants of a true lost civilization, the Peoples of the Anaconda. In the Andes we discover that the earth really is alive, while in Australia we experience Dreamtime, the all-embracing philosophy of the first humans to walk out of Africa. We then travel to Nepal, where we encounter a wisdom hero, a Bodhisattva, who emerges from forty-five years of Buddhist retreat and solitude. And finally we settle in Borneo, where the last rainforest nomads struggle to survive.Understanding the lessons of this journey will be our mission for the next century. For at risk is the human legacy -- a vast archive of knowledge and expertise, a catalogue of the imagination. Rediscovering a new appreciation for the diversity of the human spirit, as expressed by culture, is among the central challenges of our time.
The Wealth of Communities: Stories of Success in Local Environmental Management (Routledge Revivals)
by Grazia Borrini-Feyerabend Charlie Pye-SmithFirst published in 1994, The Wealth of Communities presents the stories of ten communities from Philippines to Poland, from Los Angeles to Zimbabwe, where they are making intelligent and sustainable use of the world around them. It brings case studies of reviving depleted fisheries; finding novel ways of waste disposal; controlling industrial pollution; and replanting forests, to show how they are shaping their own destinies and meeting their own needs while at the same time protecting the environment in the face of hardship and opposition. The Wealth of Communities is a book about hope and ingenuity, written in a vivid and memorable style to which the accompanying photographs lend immediacy and depth. In an age of climate crisis, these ten tales will pave the way for the success of future ventures, and they are a tonic for hard times
The Wealth of Nature: Economics as If Survival Mattered
by John Michael GreerOur destructive obsession with money and economic growth has driven us to the brink of disaster. The Wealth of Nature exposes the flaws in conventional economic theory and shows how through public policy initiatives and personal choices the economy can be restructured at an appropriate scale with a focus on the natural world.
The Weapon (A Dan Lenson Novel #11)
by David PoyerA deadly new weapon hits the international arms market--- and the only way to preserve the balance of power in the Mideast is to hijack the Iranian sub that carries it. United States Navy Commander and Medal of Honor winner Dan Lenson has been handed another outside-the-box assignment. TAG Charlie, an elite team of active-duty sailors, SEALs, and civilian analysts, is tasked to investigate and defuse emerging naval threats around the globe. When the Skhval-K-- an unstoppable rocket torpedo designed to destroy U.S. aircraft carriers-- is demonstrated at a Moscow arms show, Dan tries to buy one so that the U.S. Navy can build countermeasures. But he's lucky to escape with his life when he's set up by Russia's new counterespionage service. When the Russians sell the new weapon to Iran and China instead, Dan decides that if he can't buy it, he'll steal it. But when a daring nighttime penetration of Iran's largest naval base goes wrong too, Dan finds himself captaining a submarine he barely knows how to submerge, pursued by Iranian destroyers and sub-hunting aircraft through the shallow, hazardous Persian Gulf.Authentic action and daring espionage combine in a timely thriller set in a hair-trigger military environment.
The Weather Girls
by AkiSummer, Fall, Winter, or Spring—the Weather Girls are ready for whatever the seasons might bring! It’s summer time. We rise and shine!/ All set to go. We form a line.// A big bright sun. Let’s have some fun./We sing and dive and splash and run. Follow these busy girls as they climb mountains, fly hot-air balloons, and soak in a rainbow-sky sunset. Charming rhyming verse and adorable art make this picture book irresistible—and perfect for sharing!- GODWIN BOOKS -
The Weather Machine: A Journey Inside the Forecast
by Andrew BlumFrom the acclaimed author of Tubes, a lively and surprising tour of the infrastructure behind the weather forecast, the people who built it, and what it reveals about our climate and our planetThe weather is the foundation of our daily lives. It’s a staple of small talk, the app on our smartphones, and often the first thing we check each morning. Yet behind these quotidian interactions is one of the most expansive machines human beings have ever constructed—a triumph of science, technology and global cooperation. But what is this ‘weather machine’ and who created it? In The Weather Machine, Andrew Blum takes readers on a fascinating journey through an everyday miracle. In a quest to understand how the forecast works, he visits old weather stations and watches new satellites blast off. He follows the dogged efforts of scientists to create a supercomputer model of the atmosphere and traces the surprising history of the algorithms that power their work. He discovers that we have quietly entered a golden age of meteorology—our tools allow us to predict weather more accurately than ever, and yet we haven’t learned to trust them, nor can we guarantee the fragile international alliances that allow our modern weather machine to exist.Written with the sharp wit and infectious curiosity Andrew Blum is known for, The Weather Machine pulls back the curtain on a universal part of our everyday lives, illuminating our relationships with technology, the planet, and the global community.
The Weather Makers: How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth
by Tim FlanneryWarning that climate change is fast becoming an issue that "will dwarf all others combined," Flannery (U. of Adelaide, Australia) uses these pages to summarize the scientific evidence regarding climate change for a general audience. He has sought to be comprehensive in coverage, discussing the role of climate change in the evolution of the earth, the natural and anthropogenic driving factors of climate change, the range of environmental effects thought to be connected to the phenomena, global models and predictions, and technology- and policy-based solutions. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
The Weather Makers: How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth
by Tim FlanneryAn international best seller embraced and endorsed by policy makers, scientists, writers and energy industry executives from around the world, Tim Flannery’s The Weather Makers contributed in bringing the topic of global warming to national prominence. For the first time, a scientist provided an accessible and comprehensive account of the history, current status, and future impact of climate change, writing what has been acclaimed by reviewers everywhere as the definitive book on global warming.With one out of every five living things on this planet committed to extinction by the levels of greenhouse gases that will accumulate in the next few decades, we are reaching a global climatic tipping point. The Weather Makers is both an urgent warning and a call to arms, outlining the history of climate change, how it will unfold over the next century, and what we can do to prevent a cataclysmic future. Originally somewhat of a global warming skeptic, Tim Flannery spent several years researching the topic and offers a connect-the-dots approach for a reading public who has received patchy or misleading information on the subject. Pulling on his expertise as a scientist to discuss climate change from a historical perspective, Flannery also explains how climate change is interconnected across the planet.This edition includes an new afterword by the author.
The Weather Today: Independent Reading Non-Fiction Pink 1a (Reading Champion #515)
by Jackie WalterThis book is part of Reading Champion, a series carefully linked to book bands to encourage independent reading skills, developed with UCL Institute of Education (IOE)The Weather Today is a non-fiction text exploring how different clothes are suitable for different weather. The repeated sentence structure offers readers the opportunity for a very first independent reading experience with the support of the illustrations.Reading Champion offers independent reading books for children to practise and reinforce their developing reading skills.This early non-fiction text is accompanied by engaging artwork and a reading activity. Each book has been carefully graded so that it can be matched to a child's reading ability, encouraging reading for pleasure.
The Weather of the Future: Heat Waves, Extreme Storms, and Other Scenes from a Climate-Changed Planet
by Heidi Cullen“A scorching vision of what life might be like in the warmer world that is already on its way. " — Michiko Kakutani, New York Times“Vivid and compelling, this book shows what life will be like in a warming world. Essential reading for anyone who’s planning to inhabit the planet for the next few decades.” — Elizabeth Kolbert, author of Field Notes from a CatastropheFrom Heidi Cullen, one of America’s foremost experts on weather and climate change and a senior research scientist with Climate Central, a fascinating and provocative book that predicts what different parts of the world will look like in the year 2050 if current levels of carbon emissions are maintained.Dr. Heidi Cullen, one of the world’s foremost climatologists and environmental journalists, offers a new way of viewing the climate-change phenomenon, not as some future event but as something happening right now in our own backyard. In this groundbreaking, provocative work, Dr. Cullen combines the latest scientific research with state-of-the-art climate-model projections to create climate-change scenarios for seven of the most at-risk locations around the globe.From the Central Valley of California, where coming droughts will jeopardize the entire state’s water supply, to New York City, whose infrastructure is extremely vulnerable to even a relatively weak Category 3 hurricane, to Greenland, where warmer temperatures will give access to mineral wealth buried beneath ice sheets for millennia, Cullen illustrates how, if left unabated, climate change will transform every corner of the world by midcentury—and no two regions will be affected in quite the same way.
The Weather's Bet
by Ed Young*"Awe-inspiring artwork as powerful as any force of nature."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)From Caldecott Medalist Ed Young comes a picture book retelling of Aesop's fable The Wind and the Sun. Once upon the sky, there were three powers--the Wind, the Rain, and the Sun--each claiming to be the mightier than the others. One day, the powers came upon a shepherd girl fast asleep upon a hill, so they made a bet to see who could make her take her cap off. Who will be the strongest of them all?Rendered in exquisite mixed-media collage, Caldecott Medalist Ed Young's gorgeous and deeply poignant retelling of the well-known Aesop's fable The Wind and the Sun, proves that sometimes gentle persuasion and kindness are the best virtues of all.Praise for The Weather's Bet:"Lyrical and profound." --School Library Journal"A good classroom readaloud."--Publishers Weekly
The Weight Of Water
by Anita ShreveOn Smuttynose Island, off the coast of New Hampshire, more than a century ago, two Norwegian immigrant women were brutally murdered. A third woman survived by hiding in a cave until dawn. In 1995, Jean, a photographer, is sent on an assignment to shoot a photo essay about the legendary crime. Taking her extended family with her, Jean stays in a sailboat anchored off the coast, and finds herself gradually becoming more and more engrossed in the bay's mysterious and gruesome past. Wandering into a library one day, she unearths letters written by Maren, the sole survivor of the murder spree. Jean's fear of losing all that she cares about is reflected in Maren's poignant tale of love and loss, and her obsession with the ancient story drives her to wild impulsive action -- with unrecoverable consequences.
The Weight of Nature: How a Changing Climate Changes Our Brains
by Clayton Page AldernA New York Times Editors' ChoiceA Next Big Idea Club and Sierra Magazine Must-Read BookA Behavioral Scientist&’s Summer Book List PickA Financial Times Best Summer BookA deeply reported, eye-opening book about climate change, our brains, and the weight of nature on us all. The march of climate change is stunning and vicious, with rising seas, extreme weather, and oppressive heat blanketing the globe. But its effects on our very brains constitute a public-health crisis that has gone largely unreported. Based on seven years of research, this book by the award-winning journalist and trained neuroscientist Clayton Page Aldern, synthesizes the emerging neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral economics of global warming and brain health. A masterpiece of literary journalism, this book shows readers how a changing environment is changing us today, from the inside out. Aldern calls it the weight of nature. Hotter temperatures make it harder to think clearly and problem-solve. They increase the chance of impulsive violence. Immigration judges are more likely to reject asylum applications on hotter days. Umpires, to miss calls. Air pollution, heatwaves, and hurricanes can warp and wear on memory, language, and sensory systems; wildfires seed PTSD. And climate-fueled ecosystem changes extend the reach of brain-disease carriers like mosquitos, brain-eating amoebas, and the bats that brought us the mental fog of long COVID. How we feel about climate change matters deeply; but this is a book about much more than climate anxiety. As Aldern richly details, it is about the profound, direct action of global warming on our brains and behavior—and the most startling portrait yet of unforeseen environmental influences on our minds. From farms in the San Joaquin Valley and public schools across the United States to communities in Norway&’s Arctic, the Micronesian islands, and the French Alps, this book is an unprecedented portrait of a global crisis we thought we understood.
The Weird and Wonderful World of Bugs: A Book About Beetles, Butterflies, and Other Fascinating Insects
by Rea ManderinoFascinating facts and up-close photos to delight bug fans ages 5 to 7Calling all young bug enthusiasts! Come along on a journey into The Weird and Wonderful World of Bugs. Kids from ages 5 to 7 will learn all about the insects and other arthropods we call "bugs." They'll meet moths, bees, fireflies, spiders, and mosquitos in detailed, full-color photos that bring the bugs to life from antennae to abdomen. Entomologist Rea Manderino, PhD, offers scientific facts on every page, inspiring budding bug scientists to explore their backyards with new eyes.Discover intriguing facts like:More than one-third of all the insects on Earth are beetles. There are almost 390,000 species!Some ants are farmers! They bring leaves back to the nest and use them to grow fungus, which they feed to their babies.Pillbugs are a type of crustacean—like crabs—with many legs, a hard exoskeleton, and gills that need water to breathe.Leap, fly, and crawl into a big world of small wonders with this incredible bug book for kids.
The Weirdo (Penguin Joint Venture Readers Ser.)
by Theodore TaylorChip Clewt, known simply as the weirdo, lives like a hermit in the Powhatan Swamp, a National Wildlife Refuge that is at the center of a heated controversy between local hunters and environmentalists. A hunting ban on the Powhatan is about to expire. The environmentalists want to protect the wildlife; the hunters are oiling their guns. Then someone completely unexpected comes forward to spearhead the conservation effort--the weirdo.Includes a reader's guide.
The Well-Chosen Garden
by Christopher LloydThe perfect book on how to make your garden the best it can be.'Essential reading' Country Life'Funny, encouraging, informative' Sunday TimesWould your garden, small or large, in town or country, win a prize? Is there room for improvement? Everybody has favourite plants, but the ability to put them all together to ensure a splendid show throughout the year is a skill that must be acquired. THE WELL-CHOSEN GARDEN will guide you to making the most of your available space, help you avoid untimely gaps, colour clashes and many other pitfalls of garden planning.The perfect book for new and experienced gardeners alike.
The Well-Chosen Garden
by Christopher LloydThe perfect book on how to make your garden the best it can be.'Essential reading' Country Life'Funny, encouraging, informative' Sunday TimesWould your garden, small or large, in town or country, win a prize? Is there room for improvement? Everybody has favourite plants, but the ability to put them all together to ensure a splendid show throughout the year is a skill that must be acquired. THE WELL-CHOSEN GARDEN will guide you to making the most of your available space, help you avoid untimely gaps, colour clashes and many other pitfalls of garden planning.The perfect book for new and experienced gardeners alike.
The Well-Gardened Mind: The Restorative Power of Nature
by Sue Stuart-SmithA distinguished psychiatrist and avid gardener offers an inspiring and consoling work about the healing effects of gardening and its ability to decrease stress and foster mental well-being in our everyday lives.The garden is often seen as a refuge, a place to forget worldly cares, removed from the &“real&” life that lies outside. But when we get our hands in the earth we connect with the cycle of life in nature through which destruction and decay are followed by regrowth and renewal. Gardening is one of the quintessential nurturing activities and yet we understand so little about it. The Well-Gardened Mind provides a new perspective on the power of gardening to change people&’s lives. Here, Sue Stuart-Smith investigates the many ways in which mind and garden can interact and explores how the process of tending a plot can be a way of sustaining an innermost self. Stuart-Smith&’s own love of gardening developed as she studied to become a psychoanalytic psychotherapist. From her grandfather&’s return from World War I to Freud&’s obsession with flowers to case histories with her own patients to progressive gardening programs in such places as Rikers Island prison in New York City, Stuart-Smith weaves thoughtful yet powerful examples to argue that gardening is much more important to our cognition than we think. Recent research is showing how green nature has direct antidepressant effects on humans. Essential and pragmatic, The Well-Gardened Mind is a book for gardeners and the perfect read for people seeking healthier mental lives.
The Well-Tempered Garden: A New Edition Of The Gardening Classic
by Christopher LloydA timeless gardening classic by Christopher Lloyd, one of Britain's most highly respected plantsmen, updated for the 21st century. With a new foreword by Anna Pavord.This is a classic work by a gardener who combines a passionate love of his subject with a critical intelligence and a good helping of wit. THE WELL-TEMPERED GARDEN is packed with the sort of information keen gardeners crave - from planting, weeding and the pleasures of propagation to annuals, water lilies and vegetables. Hailed as a masterpiece when it was first published, THE WELL-TEMPERED GARDEN is as fresh, enlightening and necessary for gardeners in the 21st century as it was when it first appeared more than 40 years ago.
The West without Water
by Frances Malamud-Roam B. Lynn IngramThe West without Water documents the tumultuous climate of the American West over twenty millennia, with tales of past droughts and deluges and predictions about the impacts of future climate change on water resources. Looking at the region's current water crisis from the perspective of its climate history, the authors ask the central question of what is "normal" climate for the West, and whether the relatively benign climate of the past century will continue into the future. The West without Water merges climate and paleoclimate research from a wide variety of sources as it introduces readers to key discoveries in cracking the secrets of the region's climatic past. It demonstrates that extended droughts and catastrophic floods have plagued the West with regularity over the past two millennia and recounts the most disastrous flood in the history of California and the West, which occurred in 1861-62. The authors show that, while the West may have temporarily buffered itself from such harsh climatic swings by creating artificial environments and human landscapes, our modern civilization may be ill-prepared for the future climate changes that are predicted to beset the region. They warn that it is time to face the realities of the past and prepare for a future in which fresh water may be less reliable.
The Western Arctic Seas Encyclopedia
by Andrey G. Kostianoy Igor S. Zonn Aleksandr V. SemenovThis Encyclopedia is designed to accumulate and systematize our knowledge about the unique natural water areas - the Barents, White and Kara seas, their wealth, the events that took place on its waters and shores, and the remarkable people whose lives were and are closely intertwined with the seas. The Encyclopedia contains about 900 terms and concepts related to the seas. It describes geographical features: rivers, lakes, straits, bays; provides information about towns, seaports, transport communications, basic aquatic biological species, nature reserves, national and international programs for the study of the sea, research institutes, historical monuments, activities of prominent explorers and travelers, researchers and scientists. The Encyclopedia includes a chronology of major historical events connected with the Western Arctic seas for more than 1200 years.
The Western Confluence: A Guide To Governing Natural Resources
by Charles F. Wilkinson Will Harmon Matthew MckinneyFor 150 years, the American West has been shaped by persistent conflicts over natural resources. This has given rise to a succession of strategies for resolving disputes-prior appropriation, scientific management, public participation, citizen ballot initiatives, public interest litigation, devolution, and interest-based negotiation. All of these strategies are still in play, yet the West remains mired in gridlock. In fact, these strategies are themselves a source of conflict.The Western Confluence is designed to help us navigate through the gridlock by reframing natural resource disputes and the strategies for resolving them. In it, authors Matthew McKinney and William Harmon trace the principles of natural resource governance across the history of western settlement and reveal how they have met at the beginning of the twenty-first century to create a turbid, often contentious confluence of laws, regulations, and policies. They also offer practical suggestions for resolving current and future disputes. Ultimately, Matthew McKinney and William Harmon argue, fully integrating the values of interest-based negotiation into the briar patch of existing public decision making strategies is the best way to foster livable communities, vibrant economies, and healthy landscapes in the West.Relying on the authors' first-hand experience and compelling case studies, The Western Confluence offers useful information and insight for anyone involved with public decision making, as well as for professionals, faculty, and students in natural resource management and environmental studies, conflict management, environmental management, and environmental policy.
The Western Limit of the World
by David MasielDavid Masiel's first novel, 2182 Kilohertz, was one of the most greatly praised books of 2002. A riveting adventure of an unlikely hero's quest for personal redemption in frigid arctic waters, it earned its author comparisons to such giants of nautical fiction as Melville and Conrad. Now Masiel more than meets the promise of his debut with a harrowing odyssey of love and betrayal on the high seas-and in the shadowy corners of the human heart.
The Western Paradox: A Conservation Reader
by Arthur M. Schlesinger Bernard Devoto Douglas Brinkley Patricia NelsonThis book is the fascinating record of DeVoto's crusade to save the West from itself.