The Anthropocene as a Geological Time Unit

The Anthropocene as a Geological Time Unit
Author: Jan Zalasiewicz
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2019-03-07
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 110847523X

Reviews the evidence underpinning the Anthropocene as a geological epoch written by the Anthropocene Working Group investigating it. The book discusses ongoing changes to the Earth system within the context of deep geological time, allowing a comparison between the global transition taking place today with major transitions in Earth history.

Thinking Continental

Thinking Continental
Author: Susan Naramore Maher
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 374
Release: 2017-11
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 149620283X

In response to the growing scale and complexity of environmental threats, this volume collects articles, essays, personal narratives, and poems by more than forty authors in conversation about “thinking continental”—connecting local and personal landscapes to universal systems and processes—to articulate the concept of a global or planetary citizenship. Reckoning with the larger matrix of biome, region, continent, hemisphere, ocean, and planet has become necessary as environmental challenges require the insights not only of scientists but also of poets, humanists, and social scientists. Thinking Continental braids together abstract approaches with strands of more-personal narrative and poetry, showing how our imaginations can encompass the planetary while also being true to our own concrete life experiences in the here and now.

Reason in a Dark Time

Reason in a Dark Time
Author: Dale Jamieson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2014-02-28
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0199337683

From the 1992 Rio Earth Summit to the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Conference there was a concerted international effort to stop climate change. Yet greenhouse gas emissions increased, atmospheric concentrations grew, and global warming became an observable fact of life. In this book, philosopher Dale Jamieson explains what climate change is, why we have failed to stop it, and why it still matters what we do. Centered in philosophy, the volume also treats the scientific, historical, economic, and political dimensions of climate change. Our failure to prevent or even to respond significantly to climate change, Jamieson argues, reflects the impoverishment of our systems of practical reason, the paralysis of our politics, and the limits of our cognitive and affective capacities. The climate change that is underway is remaking the world in such a way that familiar comforts, places, and ways of life will disappear in years or decades rather than centuries. Climate change also threatens our sense of meaning, since it is difficult to believe that our individual actions matter. The challenges that climate change presents go beyond the resources of common sense morality -- it can be hard to view such everyday acts as driving and flying as presenting moral problems. Yet there is much that we can do to slow climate change, to adapt to it and restore a sense of agency while living meaningful lives in a changing world.

Disturbing Geomorphology by Transportation Infrastructure

Disturbing Geomorphology by Transportation Infrastructure
Author: Suvendu Roy
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 251
Release: 2023-07-18
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3031378970

This book focuses on a significant branch of anthropogeomorphology, which is not adequately studied: the impact of transportation systems on altering earth surface processes and landforms. This book fills the gap with in-depth study on the interaction between individual modes of transport network (e.g., trail, roads, railways, waterways, airports, and tunnel) and surface hydro-geomorphology with intensive literature review, fieldwork, geo-environmental modelling, mapping, case studies, and examples from different parts of the world. On the one hand, this book also addresses the vulnerability of transport networks from climate change and critical geo-hazards like floods, landslides, etc. with case studies from the high-risk zones of India. Overall, this book promotes peaceful harmony between the transport network and its surrounding landscapes as an essential lesson for policymakers, planners, and stakeholders.

Ecological Approaches to Early Modern English Texts

Ecological Approaches to Early Modern English Texts
Author: Jennifer Munroe
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 275
Release: 2016-03-09
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1317146352

Ecocriticism has steadily gained footing within the larger arena of early modern scholarship, and with the publication of well over a dozen monographs, essay collections, and special journal issues, literary studies looks increasingly ’green’; yet the field lacks a straightforward, easy-to-use guide to do with reading and teaching early modern texts ecocritically. Accessible yet comprehensive, the cutting-edge collection Ecological Approaches to Early Modern English Texts fills this gap. Organized around the notion of contact zones (or points of intersection, that have often been constructed asymmetrically-especially with regard to the human-nonhuman dichotomy), the volume reassesses current trends in ecocriticism and the Renaissance; introduces analyses of neglected texts and authors; brings ecocriticism into conversation with cognate fields and approaches (e.g., queer theory, feminism, post-coloniality, food studies); and offers a significant section on pedagogy, ecocriticism and early modern literature. Engaging points of tension and central interest in the field, the collection is largely situated in the 'and/or' that resides between presentism-historicism, materiality-literary, somatic-semiotic, nature-culture, and, most importantly, human-nonhuman. Ecological Approaches to Early Modern English Texts balances coverage and methodology; its primary goal is to provide useful, yet nuanced discussions of ecological approaches to reading and teaching a range of representative early modern texts. As a whole, the volume includes a diverse selection of chapters that engage the complex issues that arise when reading and teaching early modern texts from a green perspective.

The Trouble with Paradise

The Trouble with Paradise
Author: Dr Robin Lincoln Wood
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Total Pages: 383
Release: 2014-07-04
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1496975073

Funny and insightful, The Trouble with Paradise is a delightful yet highly informative romp through the latest breakthroughs in science, psychology, popular culture and the history of humans and life on earth, with the ultimate aim of helping the reader make sense of their own life within the context of the exciting yet also alarming developments of the 21st century. Grabbing the hardest questions ever posed by the biggest thinkers on earth by the throat, as well as the toughest challenges of our time, The Trouble with Paradise is both an intellectual tour de force as well as a gripping read that dares to challenge almost everything we take for granted about life, the universe and everything. At the same time, this book builds a series of powerful arguments as to how our species can break through the current logjam it find itself in, to come out the other side transformed into a 21st century version of heaven on earth. Inspirational yet pragmatic, The Trouble with Paradise takes you on a journey of discovery from the edges of the Universe to the innermost recesses of the human psyche, answering some of the most profound questions we have ever asked in highly entertaining way.

Unnatural Selection

Unnatural Selection
Author: Mark Roeder
Publisher: Skyhorse
Total Pages: 285
Release: 2014-10-14
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1628724803

Unnatural Selection is the first book to examine the rise of the "technocentric being"—or geek—who personifies a distinct new phase in human evolution. People considered geeks often have behavioral or genetic traits that were previously considered detrimental. But the new environment of the Anthropocene period—the Age of Man—has created a kind of digital greenhouse that actually favors their traits, enabling many non-neurotypical people to bloom. They resonate with the technological Zeitgeist in a way that turns their weaknesses into strengths. Think of Mark Zuckerberg versus the towering, Olympics-bound Winklevoss twins in the movie Social Network. Roeder suggests that the rise of the geek is not so much the product of Darwinian "natural selection" as of man-made—or unnatural—selection. He explains why geeks have become so phenomenally successful in such a short time and why the process will further accelerate, driven by breakthroughs in genetic engineering, neuropharmacology, and artificial intelligence. His book offers a fascinating synthesis of the latest trends in these fields and predicts a twenty-first century "cognitive arms race" in which new technology will enable everyone to become more intelligent and "geek-like."

Conflicting Humanities

Conflicting Humanities
Author: Rosi Braidotti
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 307
Release: 2016-06-30
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1474237568

How might we reinvent the humanities? This is the question at the heart of this provocative volume. It is a difficult mission and definitely one which needs to be addressed with increasing urgency. There is no better cast to confront and problematize this question than the contributors to Conflicting Humanities. They are world-renowned thinkers who can tackle the problem as researchers and teachers but also as prominent public intellectuals. Taking the intellectual and political legacies of Edward Said as a point of departure and frame of reference, the contributors – working in a range of disciplinary settings – consider the current condition of humanism and the humanities. Said's definition of the core task of the Humanities as the pursuit of democratic criticism remains more urgent than ever, though it needs to be supplemented by gender, environmental, and anti-racist perspectives as well as by detailed analysis of the necro-political governmentality of our time. An innovative piece of scholarship, this volume is committed to the refusal of a world riven by new kinds of warcraft, injustice and exploitation.

1001 Ideas That Changed the Way We Think

1001 Ideas That Changed the Way We Think
Author: Robert Arp
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 960
Release: 2022-06-07
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1667201743

Trace the progress of humanity—from prehistoric times to the present day—through 1,001 ideas that changed how we connect to each other and the world around us. From the ability to control fire to augmented reality, the power of humanity’s ideas has revolutionized how we live and experience the world around us. 1001 Ideas That Changed the Way We Think looks at the innovations and concepts that have played a key role in our progress since before recorded history. Covering a wide range of topics—from political and religious ideas to modern innovations such as social media and clean energy—this captivating volume offers a comprehensive look at how human ideas have evolved over the millennia.

Geology of the Baraboo, Wisconsin, Area

Geology of the Baraboo, Wisconsin, Area
Author: Richard A. Davis Jr.
Publisher: Geological Society of America
Total Pages: 92
Release: 2016-08-10
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0813700434

"Primarily for students, this guidebook on, and road log to, the Baraboo, Wisconsin, area offers insight into a wide range of geologic features. Precambrian, Cambrian, and Quaternary times are represented in a range of lithologies, structures, stratigraphy, and geomorphology. This notable area lies at the boundary of the glacial and driftless regions of the Quaternary"--