Download or read book A World In Transition Humankind and Nature written by Diederik Aerts and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A World in Transition, Humankind and Nature is appropriately entitled after its aim for an intrinsic property of reality: change. Of major concern, in this era of transformation, is the extensive and profound interaction of humankind with nature. The global-scale social and technological project of humankind definitely involves a myriad of changes of the ecosphere. This book develops, from the call for an interdisciplinary synthesis and respect of plurality, acknowledging the evolving scientific truth, to the need for an integrated but inevitably provisional worldview. Contributors from different parts of the world focus on four modes of change: (i) Social change and the individual condition, (ii) Complex evolution and fundamental emergent transformations, (iii) Ecological transformation and responsibility inquiries, (iv) The economic-ecological and socio-technical equilibria. Primarily concerned with the deep transformations of humankind and of the relationship between humans and nature, it is addressed to a broad and thinking public that wants to be kept informed.
Download or read book A World in Transition written by Diederik Aerts and published by . This book was released on 2014-01-15 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Grand Transitions written by Vaclav Smil and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-02-12 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From one of the world's leading experts on the history of energy, a rigorous examination of the transitions that structure our modern world--and the environmental reckoning that will mark its success or failure. What makes the modern world work? The answer to this deceptively simple question lies in four "grand transitions" of civilization--in populations, agriculture, energy, and economics--which have transformed the way we live. Societies that have undergone all four transitions emerge into an era of radically different population dynamics, food surpluses (and waste), abundant energy use, and expanding economic opportunities. Simultaneously, in other parts of the world, hundreds of millions remain largely untouched by these developments. Through erudite storytelling, Vaclav Smil investigates the fascinating and complex interactions of these transitions. He argues that the moral imperative to share modernity's benefits has become more acute with increasing economic inequality, but addressing this imbalance would make it exceedingly difficult to implement the changes necessary for the long-term preservation of the environment. Thus, managing the fifth transition--environmental changes from natural-resource depletion, biodiversity loss, and global warming--will determine the success or eventual failure of the grand transitions that have made the world we live in today.
Download or read book From Earth to Oblivion The Passing of Humankind written by Ross E. Goodrich, PhD and published by Ross E Goodrich PhD. This book was released on 2015-09-21 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book World in Transition written by Wissenschaftlicher Beirat der Bundesregierung Globale Umweltveränderungen (Germany) and published by Earthscan. This book was released on 2001 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: * Comprehensive assessment from the leading German environmental scientists of the state of the world's living resources or biosphere * Covers all aspects of the subject: biodiversity and genetic diversity, landscape and ecosystems, its role in the Earth's system and human impacts on it * Reviews global policies and research strategies on the biosphere and advocates urgent policy actions * A major, authoritative contribution to environmental science and policy Biodiversity- the planet's natural capital- is undergoing a dramatic collapse: its " Sixth Extinction". The losses, which are do to human activities and overexploitation of the biosphere, are irreversible. They are undermining the basis of future well-being and prosperity, including genetic resources and food production, climate stability, and coastal and soil protection. The scientists of the German Advisory Council on Global Change have produced an authoritative and alarming analysis of the state of the biosphere. They show that the time remaining for remedial action is fast disappearing and they set out a range of initiatives to be undertaken at different levels. Among their main urgent recommendations are: * protecting 10-20% of the global land area * an Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity to provide scientific advice * conservation of the diversity of cultivated as well as wild plant species * greater multilateral cooperation and implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity The volume makes a highly significant contribution to the scientific and policy debates on these critical issues. It will be essential reading for those engaged with them.
Download or read book Einstein meets Magritte an interdisciplinary reflection on science nature art human action and society 5 A world in transition humankind and nature the green book of Einstein meets Magritte written by Diederik Aerts and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Better Angels of Our Nature written by Steven Pinker and published by Penguin Books. This book was released on 2012-09-25 with total page 834 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Faced with the ceaseless stream of news about war, crime, and terrorism, one could easily think this is the most violent age ever seen. Yet as bestselling author Pinker shows in this startling and engaging new work, just the opposite is true.
Download or read book The Reindeer Chronicles written by Judith D. Schwartz and published by Chelsea Green Publishing. This book was released on 2020-08-19 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a time of uncertainty about our environmental future—an eye-opening global tour of some of the most wounded places on earth, and stories of how a passionate group of eco-restorers is leading the way to their revitalization. Award-winning science journalist Judith D. Schwartz takes us first to China’s Loess Plateau, where a landmark project has successfully restored a blighted region the size of Belgium, lifting millions of people out of poverty. She journeys on to Norway, where a young indigenous reindeer herder challenges the most powerful orthodoxies of conservation—and his own government. And in the Middle East, she follows the visionary work of an ambitious young American as he attempts to re-engineer the desert ecosystem, using plants as his most sophisticated technology. Schwartz explores regenerative solutions across a range of landscapes: deserts, grasslands, tropics, tundra, Mediterranean. She also highlights various human landscapes, the legacy of colonialism and industrial agriculture, and the endurance of indigenous knowledge. The Reindeer Chronicles demonstrates how solutions to seemingly intractable problems can come from the unlikeliest of places, and how the restoration of local water, carbon, nutrient, and energy cycles can play a dramatic role in stabilizing the global climate. Ultimately, it reveals how much is in our hands if we can find a way to work together and follow nature’s lead.
Download or read book Planetary Transition written by Divaldo Franco Pereira and published by . This book was released on 2020-12 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We are on the threshold of the great transition, when our planet will go from being a world of trials and expiations to one of regeneration. This transition has been part of the heavenly plan for a long time; thus, it will not occur in an obvious manner, overnight, as if by magic, but as a slow, gradual, yet undelayable transformation. Natural tragedies, such as the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 - the subject of our considerations in this book - are part of this process because they are meant to make humankind progress more quickly by expunging criminal spirits - those unamenable to order and to moral and spiritual evolution, which can no longer be delayed. Those spirits will spend an amount of time on other worlds, learning the laws of Love and of the Good until they are fit to return to our planet to make their contribution to the progress of humankind. In this extraordinary book, our dear readers will learn about the mechanisms and lofty reasons for the planetary transition in favor of pressing and necessary changes that promote respect for laws, ethics and nature, transforming men and women into complete beings who are conscious of their duties to God, themselves and others.
Download or read book Worlds in Transition written by Joseph Camilleri and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2009-01-01 with total page 697 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We are living through a unique moment of transition, marked by a frenetic cycle of invention, construction, consumption and destruction. However, there is more to this transition than globalization, argue the authors of this unique and penetrating study. In their highly innovative approach, they set this transition against a broader evolutionary canvas, with the emphasis on the evolution of governance. The book's detailed analysis of five strategic sectors (economy, environment, health, information and security) points to an intricate and rapidly evolving interplay of geopolitical, cultural an.
Download or read book Great Transition written by Paul Raskin and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 99 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Our World in Transition Messages from Jesus written by Albert J Fike and published by . This book was released on 2021-06-24 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Change is coming to our world. A change so profound and powerful that every one of us needs to prepare for what is coming. This book, essentially written by Jesus through the mediumship of Albert J. Fike, is part prophesy and part spiritual teachings. Twenty lessons received over a six month period take us on a journey of understanding our true nature and the potential to forge a personal relationship with our Creator. Jesus teaches that without greater knowledge and clear understanding of deeper spiritual truth that humanity will suffer through these times of difficult transitions. He speaks of the power of love to heal us all and points to avenues of vast untapped resources that will assist in transforming ourselves and our world. A new world of spiritual and material harmony is coming as the old world crumbles and a new one emerges.
Download or read book Humans and Their Environment Beyond the Nature Culture Opposition written by Claude Calame and published by Transnational Press London. This book was released on 2023-04-10 with total page 101 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The modern concept of “nature” appeared during the 17th Century: nature as a mechanical object to be submitted to reason man. A long tradition refers to the concept of nature in the Greek phusis. It is referring to a dynamic process that engages in criticizing the modern paradigm of nature as opposed to culture. As it is, the principle of the domination and exploitation by humans of what we consider as nature is at the heart of the ideological, economic and financial models imposed by neoliberal capitalism. Based on the objective of growth, this model shapes and destroys human communities as well as the environment on which they rely and sustain. The climatic urgency as well as the limited capacity of the resources of the earth, require a transition towards an ecosocialism for another world. The anthropological confrontation with the Greek phusis invites to a break with capitalism based on a large scale and speedy use of technologies and with the only objective of financial gain. The result has been destructive productivism. Instead, we have to take into account the complexity of and interactions between human societies and their technical practices in their environment. The survival of one or the other is at stake. In sum, nature is culture. Contents Preface to the English Edition. 3 Introduction. 9 Between Nature and Culture. 15 I. Humans and Their Milieu in Ancient Greece. 19 II. From the Enlightenment Philosophers to Modern Anthropologists 37 III. Beyond Anthropological Determinisms: Permeabilities 47 IV. The Human Being and its Environment: Interactive Relationships 57 V. For an Ecosocialist Understanding of Humans and their Milieu. 65
Download or read book Choosing Earth written by Duane Elgin and published by . This book was released on 2020-05-30 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A scenario for the next half-century (2020 - 2070) that explores climate disruption, a world systems crisis, a great fall for humanity, a time of great sorrow, awakening to our predicament as a human community, and together confronting the choice of rising to a higher level of maturity and potential as a species. While moving toward a pathway of great transition, Choosing Earth also acknowledges two other futures that are powerfully present in the world: 1) A pathway of breakdown, chaos and collapse; and 2) a pathway of authoritarian control enhanced with AI that wrenches the world back from the brink of catastrophe with the strict controls. This wide-ranging book looks wide, deep, and long: Looks wide by integrating a wide range and diversity of knowledge sources. Looks deep by including consciousness, awakening experiences, compassion and other invisible factors for understanding. Looks long by raising our gaze to the next half-century and beyond to get our bearings for the changing pathway ahead.
Download or read book Sparing Nature written by Jeffrey K. McKee and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2003-01-03 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are humans too good at adapting to the earth’s natural environment? Every day, there is a net gain of more than 200,000 people on the planet—that’s 146 a minute. Has our explosive population growth led to the mass extinction of countless species in the earth’s plant and animal communities? Jeffrey K. McKee contends yes. The more people there are, the more we push aside wild plants and animals. In Sparing Nature, he explores the cause-and-effect relationship between these two trends, demonstrating that nature is too sparing to accommodate both a richly diverse living world and a rapidly expanding number of people. The author probes the past to find that humans and their ancestors have had negative impacts on species biodiversity for nearly two million years, and that extinction rates have accelerated since the origins of agriculture. Today entire ecosystems are in peril due to the relentless growth of the human population. McKee gives a guided tour of the interconnections within the living world to reveal the meaning and value of biodiversity, making the maze of technical research and scientific debates accessible to the general reader. Because it is clear that conservation cannot be left to the whims of changing human priorities, McKee takes the unabashedly neo-Malthusian position that the most effective measure to save earth’s biodiversity is to slow the growth of human populations. By conscientiously becoming more responsible about our reproductive habits and our impact on other living beings, we can ensure that nature’s services will make our lives not only supportable, but also sustainable for this century and beyond.
Download or read book The Future of Human Nature written by Jürgen Habermas and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2014-10-15 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent developments in biotechnology and genetic research are raising complex ethical questions concerning the legitimate scope and limits of genetic intervention. As we begin to contemplate the possibility of intervening in the human genome to prevent diseases, we cannot help but feel that the human species might soon be able to take its biological evolution in its own hands. ‘Playing God’ is the metaphor commonly used for this self-transformation of the species, which, it seems, might soon be within our grasp. In this important new book, Jürgen Habermas – the most influential philosopher and social thinker in Germany today – takes up the question of genetic engineering and its ethical implications and subjects it to careful philosophical scrutiny. His analysis is guided by the view that genetic manipulation is bound up with the identity and self-understanding of the species. We cannot rule out the possibility that knowledge of one’s own hereditary factors may prove to be restrictive for the choice of an individual’s way of life and may undermine the symmetrical relations between free and equal human beings. In the concluding chapter – which was delivered as a lecture on receiving the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade for 2001 – Habermas broadens the discussion to examine the tension between science and religion in the modern world, a tension which exploded, with such tragic violence, on September 11th.
Download or read book Birthright written by Stephen R. Kellert and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2012-11-13 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Human health and well-being are inextricably linked to nature; our connection to the natural world is part of our biological inheritance. In this engaging book, a pioneer in the field of biophilia—the study of human beings' inherent affinity for nature—sets forth the first full account of nature's powerful influence on the quality of our lives. Stephen Kellert asserts that our capacities to think, feel, communicate, create, and find meaning in life all depend upon our relationship to nature. And yet our increasing disconnection and alienation from the natural world reflect how seriously we have undervalued its important role in our lives. Weaving scientific findings together with personal experiences and perspectives, Kellert explores specific human tendencies—including affection, aversion, intellect, control, aesthetics, exploitation, spirituality, and communication—to discover how they are influenced by our relationship with nature. He observes that a beneficial relationship with the natural world is an instinctual inclination, but must be earned. He discusses how we can restore the balance in our relationship by means of changes in childhood development, education, conservation, building design, ethics, and everyday life. Kellert's moving book provides exactly what is needed now: a fresh understanding of how much our essential humanity relies on being a part of the natural world.
