Harvesting The Biosphere

Author : Vaclav Smil
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262528274
Total Pages : 317 pages
Book Rating : 4.76/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Harvesting the Biosphere written by Vaclav Smil and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2015-08-21 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An interdisciplinary and quantitative account of human claims on the biosphere's stores of living matter, from prehistoric hunting to modern energy production. The biosphere—the Earth's thin layer of life—dates from nearly four billion years ago, when the first simple organisms appeared. Many species have exerted enormous influence on the biosphere's character and productivity, but none has transformed the Earth in so many ways and on such a scale as Homo sapiens. In Harvesting the Biosphere, Vaclav Smil offers an interdisciplinary and quantitative account of human claims on the biosphere's stores of living matter, from prehistory to the present day. Smil examines all harvests—from prehistoric man's hunting of megafauna to modern crop production—and all uses of harvested biomass, including energy, food, and raw materials. Without harvesting of the biomass, Smil points out, there would be no story of human evolution and advancing civilization; but at the same time, the increasing extent and intensity of present-day biomass harvests are changing the very foundations of civilization's well-being. In his detailed and comprehensive account, Smil presents the best possible quantifications of past and current global losses in order to assess the evolution and extent of biomass harvests. Drawing on the latest work in disciplines ranging from anthropology to environmental science, Smil offers a valuable long-term, planet-wide perspective on human-caused environmental change.

Author : Vaclav Smil
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 9780262692717
Total Pages : 396 pages
Book Rating : 4.16/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Feeding the World written by Vaclav Smil and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2001-08-24 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A realistic yet encouraging look at how society can change in ways that will allow us to feed an expanding global population. This book addresses the question of how we can best feed the ten billion or so people who will likely inhabit the Earth by the middle of the twenty-first century. He asks whether human ingenuity can produce enough food to support healthy and vigorous lives for all these people without irreparably damaging the integrity of the biosphere. What makes this book different from other books on the world food situation is its consideration of the complete food cycle, from agriculture to post-harvest losses and processing to eating and discarding. Taking a scientific approach, Smil espouses neither the catastrophic view that widespread starvation is imminent nor the cornucopian view that welcomes large population increases as the source of endless human inventiveness. He shows how we can make more effective use of current resources and suggests that if we increase farming efficiency, reduce waste, and transform our diets, future needs may not be as great as we anticipate. Smil's message is that the prospects may not be as bright as we would like, but the outlook is hardly disheartening. Although inaction, late action, or misplaced emphasis may bring future troubles, we have the tools to steer a more efficient course. There are no insurmountable biophysical reasons we cannot feed humanity in the decades to come while easing the burden that modern agriculture puts on the biosphere.

Author : Genese Marie Sodikoff
Publisher : Indiana University Press
ISBN 13 : 0253003091
Total Pages : 271 pages
Book Rating : 4.96/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Forest and Labor in Madagascar written by Genese Marie Sodikoff and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2012-10-17 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Protecting the unique plants and animals that live on Madagascar while fueling economic growth has been a priority for the Malagasy state, international donors, and conservation NGOs since the late 1980s. Forest and Labor in Madagascar shows how poor rural workers who must make a living from the forest balance their needs with the desire of the state to earn foreign revenue from ecotourism and forest-based enterprises. Genese Marie Sodikoff examines how the appreciation and protection of Madagascar's biodiversity depend on manual labor. She exposes the moral dilemmas workers face as both conservation representatives and peasant farmers by pointing to the hidden costs of ecological conservation.

Author : Gregory Unruh
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780578421278
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.75/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Biosphere Rules written by Gregory Unruh and published by . This book was released on 2019-03-26 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Vladimir I. Vernadsky
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 1461217504
Total Pages : 178 pages
Book Rating : 4.03/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Biosphere written by Vladimir I. Vernadsky and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Vladimir Vernadsky was a brilliant and prescient scholar-a true scientific visionary who saw the deep connections between life on Earth and the rest of the planet and understood the profound implications for life as a cosmic phenomenon." -DAVID H. GRINSPOON, AUTHOR OF VENUS REVEALED "The Biosphere should be required reading for all entry level students in earth and planetary sciences." -ERIC D. SCHNEIDER, AUTHOR OF INTO THE COOL: THE NEW THERMODYNAMICS OF CREATIVE DESTRUCTION

Author : Vaclav Smil
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262042835
Total Pages : 665 pages
Book Rating : 4.33/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Growth written by Vaclav Smil and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2019-09-24 with total page 665 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A systematic investigation of growth in nature and society, from tiny organisms to the trajectories of empires and civilizations. Growth has been both an unspoken and an explicit aim of our individual and collective striving. It governs the lives of microorganisms and galaxies; it shapes the capabilities of our extraordinarily large brains and the fortunes of our economies. Growth is manifested in annual increments of continental crust, a rising gross domestic product, a child's growth chart, the spread of cancerous cells. In this magisterial book, Vaclav Smil offers systematic investigation of growth in nature and society, from tiny organisms to the trajectories of empires and civilizations. Smil takes readers from bacterial invasions through animal metabolisms to megacities and the global economy. He begins with organisms whose mature sizes range from microscopic to enormous, looking at disease-causing microbes, the cultivation of staple crops, and human growth from infancy to adulthood. He examines the growth of energy conversions and man-made objects that enable economic activities—developments that have been essential to civilization. Finally, he looks at growth in complex systems, beginning with the growth of human populations and proceeding to the growth of cities. He considers the challenges of tracing the growth of empires and civilizations, explaining that we can chart the growth of organisms across individual and evolutionary time, but that the progress of societies and economies, not so linear, encompasses both decline and renewal. The trajectory of modern civilization, driven by competing imperatives of material growth and biospheric limits, Smil tells us, remains uncertain.

Author : Samantha Fowler
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9789888407453
Total Pages : 618 pages
Book Rating : 4.57/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Concepts of Biology written by Samantha Fowler and published by . This book was released on 2018-01-07 with total page 618 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Concepts of Biology is designed for the single-semester introduction to biology course for non-science majors, which for many students is their only college-level science course. As such, this course represents an important opportunity for students to develop the necessary knowledge, tools, and skills to make informed decisions as they continue with their lives. Rather than being mired down with facts and vocabulary, the typical non-science major student needs information presented in a way that is easy to read and understand. Even more importantly, the content should be meaningful. Students do much better when they understand why biology is relevant to their everyday lives. For these reasons, Concepts of Biology is grounded on an evolutionary basis and includes exciting features that highlight careers in the biological sciences and everyday applications of the concepts at hand.We also strive to show the interconnectedness of topics within this extremely broad discipline. In order to meet the needs of today's instructors and students, we maintain the overall organization and coverage found in most syllabi for this course. A strength of Concepts of Biology is that instructors can customize the book, adapting it to the approach that works best in their classroom. Concepts of Biology also includes an innovative art program that incorporates critical thinking and clicker questions to help students understand--and apply--key concepts.

Author : Charlie M. Shackleton
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317916123
Total Pages : 346 pages
Book Rating : 4.23/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Ecological Sustainability for Non-timber Forest Products written by Charlie M. Shackleton and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-03-24 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is growing knowledge about and appreciation of the importance of Non-timber Forest Products (NTFPs) to rural livelihoods in developing countries, and to a lesser extent, developed countries. However, there is also an assumption on the part of policy-makers that any harvesting of wild animal or plant products from the forests and other natural and modified ecosystems must be detrimental to the long-term viability of target populations and species. This book challenges this idea and shows that while examples of such negative impacts certainly exist, there are also many examples of sustainable harvesting systems for NTFPs. The chapters review and present coherent and scientifically sound information and case studies on the ecologically sustainable use of NTFPs. They also outline a general interdisciplinary approach for assessing the sustainability of NTFP harvesting systems at different scales. A wide range of case studies is included from Africa, Asia and South America, using plant and animal products for food, crafts, textiles, medicines and cosmetics.

Author : Carol E. Cleland
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 052187324X
Total Pages : 261 pages
Book Rating : 4.46/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Quest for a Universal Theory of Life written by Carol E. Cleland and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-09-12 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores fundamental philosophical and scientific questions about the nature of life, particularly in relation to the search for extraterrestrial life.

Author : Gordon Bonan
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1107043786
Total Pages : 459 pages
Book Rating : 4.87/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Climate Change and Terrestrial Ecosystem Modeling written by Gordon Bonan and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-02-21 with total page 459 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides an essential introduction to modeling terrestrial ecosystems in Earth system models for graduate students and researchers.