Preserving the Desert

Preserving the Desert
Author: Lary M. Dilsaver
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2016
Genre: Desert conservation
ISBN: 9781938086465

National parks are different from other federal lands in the United States. Beginning in 1872 with the establishment of Yellowstone, they were largely set aside to preserve for future generations the most spectacular and inspirational features of the country, seeking the best representative examples of major ecosystems such as Yosemite, geologic forms such as the Grand Canyon, archaeological sites such as Mesa Verde, and scenes of human events such as Gettysburg. But one type of habitat--the desert--fell short of that goal in American eyes until travel writers and the Automobile Age began to change that perception. As the Park Service began to explore the better-known Mojave and Colorado deserts of southern California during the 1920s for a possible desert park, many agency leaders still carried the same negative image of arid lands shared by many Americans--that they are hostile and largely useless. But one wealthy woman--Minerva Hamilton Hoyt, from Pasadena--came forward, believing in the value of the desert, and convinced President Franklin D. Roosevelt to establish a national monument that would protect the unique and iconic Joshua trees and other desert flora and fauna. Thus was Joshua Tree National Monument officially established in 1936, with the area later expanded in 1994 when it became Joshua Tree National Park. Since 1936, the National Park Service and a growing cadre of environmentalists and recreationalists have fought to block ongoing proposals from miners, ranchers, private landowners, and real estate developers who historically have refused to accept the idea that any desert is suitable for anything other than their consumptive activities. To their dismay, Joshua Tree National Park, even with its often-conflicting land uses, is more popular today than ever, serving more than one million visitors per year who find the desert to be a place worthy of respect and preservation. Distributed for George Thompson Publishing

The Uninhabitable Earth

The Uninhabitable Earth
Author: David Wallace-Wells
Publisher: Crown
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2019-02-19
Genre: Science
ISBN: 052557672X

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “The Uninhabitable Earth hits you like a comet, with an overflow of insanely lyrical prose about our pending Armageddon.”—Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday Demon NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New Yorker • The New York Times Book Review • Time • NPR • The Economist • The Paris Review • Toronto Star • GQ • The Times Literary Supplement • The New York Public Library • Kirkus Reviews It is worse, much worse, than you think. If your anxiety about global warming is dominated by fears of sea-level rise, you are barely scratching the surface of what terrors are possible—food shortages, refugee emergencies, climate wars and economic devastation. An “epoch-defining book” (The Guardian) and “this generation’s Silent Spring” (The Washington Post), The Uninhabitable Earth is both a travelogue of the near future and a meditation on how that future will look to those living through it—the ways that warming promises to transform global politics, the meaning of technology and nature in the modern world, the sustainability of capitalism and the trajectory of human progress. The Uninhabitable Earth is also an impassioned call to action. For just as the world was brought to the brink of catastrophe within the span of a lifetime, the responsibility to avoid it now belongs to a single generation—today’s. LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN/E.O. WILSON LITERARY SCIENCE WRITING AWARD “The Uninhabitable Earth is the most terrifying book I have ever read. Its subject is climate change, and its method is scientific, but its mode is Old Testament. The book is a meticulously documented, white-knuckled tour through the cascading catastrophes that will soon engulf our warming planet.”—Farhad Manjoo, The New York Times “Riveting. . . . Some readers will find Mr. Wallace-Wells’s outline of possible futures alarmist. He is indeed alarmed. You should be, too.”—The Economist “Potent and evocative. . . . Wallace-Wells has resolved to offer something other than the standard narrative of climate change. . . . He avoids the ‘eerily banal language of climatology’ in favor of lush, rolling prose.”—Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times “The book has potential to be this generation’s Silent Spring.”—The Washington Post “The Uninhabitable Earth, which has become a best seller, taps into the underlying emotion of the day: fear. . . . I encourage people to read this book.”—Alan Weisman, The New York Review of Books

Experiencing Citizenship

Experiencing Citizenship
Author: Richard M. Battistoni
Publisher: Stylus Publishing, LLC.
Total Pages: 264
Release: 1997
Genre: Education
ISBN:

This volume is part of a series of 18 monographs service learning and the academic disciplines. This collection of essays focuses on the use of service learning as an approach to teaching and learning in political science. Following an Introduction by Richard M. Battistoni and William E. Hudson, the four essays in Part 1, "Service-Learning as a Mode of Civic Education," develop a theoretical framework for understanding service learning; titles include: "The Decline of Democratic Faith" (Jean Bethke Elshtain); "Teaching/Theorizing/Practicing Democracy: An Activist's Perspective on Service-Learning in Political Science" (Meta Mendel-Reyes); "The Work of Citizenship and the Problem of Service-Learning" (Harry C. Boyte and James Farr); and "Examining Pedagogy in the Service-Learning Classroom: Reflections on Integrating Service-Learning into the Curriculum" (Karen D. Zivi). Chapters in Part 2, "Course Narratives," provide practical how-to guidance; including: "Community Service-Learning as Practice in the Democratic Political Arts" (Gregory B. Markus); "Service-Learning in the Study of American Public Policy" (William E. Hudson); "Political Theory" (James Farr); "Research Methods" (Daniel J. Palazzolo); "Women and Citizenship: Transforming Theory and Practice" (Cynthia R. Daniels); "Politics, Community, and Service" (Richard Guarasci); "Civil Rights and Liberties" (Bill Swinford); "Service-Learning and Comparative Politics: A Latin American Saga" (Robert H. Trudeau); "The Police Corps: Researching Teaching and Teaching Research" (Milton Heumann); and "Bringing Service and Politics Together: A Community College Perspective" (Mona Field). The essays in Part 3, "The Discipline and Beyond," examine more general concerns; they include: "Experiencing Government: Political Science Internships" (Stephen Frantzich and Sheilah Mann); "Service-Learning and Empowerment" (Ed Schwerin); "Civic Leadership" (Richard A. Couto). An Afterword by Benjamin R. Barber closes the text. Appended are a 10-item annotated bibliography and a annotated list of service-learning courses in political science offered at various colleges and universities. (All essays include references.) (SM)

Commuting in America III

Commuting in America III
Author: Alan Pisarski
Publisher: Transportation Research Board
Total Pages: 199
Release: 2006
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 030909853X

TRB has released the third edition of Commuting in America. The report was prepared by author Alan E. Pisarski under a joint project of the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) and the Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP). Commuting in America III is one of the most comprehensive documents of its kind. Based on the latest census information available, it contains 155 figures, 79 tables, and some 100 "factlets" that tell the story of America's commuting trends and patterns over the last ten years. This publication will be a valuable reference for the transportation community--practitioners, researchers, and decision makers--who wish to understand how individual behavior and public policies have affected, and will continue to affect, commuting patterns. A press release and factsheets on information contained in Commuting in America III is also available.

Dharma Rain

Dharma Rain
Author: Stephanie Kaza
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
Total Pages: 506
Release: 2000-02-08
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1570624755

A comprehensive collection of classic texts, contemporary interpretations, guidelines for activists, issue-specific information, and materials for environmentally-oriented religious practice. Sources and contributors include Basho, the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh, Gary Snyder, Chögyam Trungpa, Gretel Ehrlich, Peter Mathiessen, Helen Tworkov (editor of Tricycle), and Philip Glass.

Facing the Heat Barrier

Facing the Heat Barrier
Author: T.A. Heppenheimer
Publisher: Courier Dover Publications
Total Pages: 355
Release: 2018-09-12
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0486834514

This volume from The NASA History Series presents an overview of the science of hypersonics, the study of flight at speeds at which the physics of flows is dominated by aerodynamic heating. The survey begins during the years immediately following World War II, with the first steps in hypersonic research: the development of missile nose cones and the X-15; the earliest concepts of hypersonic propulsion; and the origin of the scramjet engine. Next, it addresses the re-entry problem, which came to the forefront during the mid-1950s, showing how work in this area supported the manned space program and contributed to the development of the orbital shuttle. Subsequent chapters explore the fading of scramjet studies and the rise of the National Aerospace Plane (NASP) program of 1985–95, which sought to lay groundwork for single-stage vehicles. The program's ultimate shortcomings — in terms of aerodynamics, propulsion, and materials — are discussed, and the book concludes with a look at hypersonics in the post-NASP era, including the development of the X-33 and X-34 launch vehicles, further uses for scramjets, and advances in fluid mechanics. Clearly, ongoing research in hypersonics has yet to reach its full potential, and readers with an interest in aeronautics and astronautics will find this book a fascinating exploration of the field's history and future.