Download or read book Fixing the Sky written by James Rodger Fleming and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2010-08-13 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Weaving together stories from elite science, cutting-edge technology, and popular culture, Fleming examines issues of health and navigation in the 1830s, drought in the 1890s, aircraft safety in the 1930s, and world conflict since the 1940s.
Download or read book Fixing the Sky written by James Rodger Fleming and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2010-09-02 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As alarm over global warming spreads, a radical idea is gaining momentum. Forget cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, some scientists argue. Instead, bounce sunlight back into space by pumping reflective nanoparticles into the atmosphere. Launch mirrors into orbit around the Earth. Make clouds thicker and brighter to create a "planetary thermostat." These ideas might sound like science fiction, but in fact they are part of a very old story. For more than a century, scientists, soldiers, and charlatans have tried to manipulate weather and climate, and like them, today's climate engineers wildly exaggerate what is possible. Scarcely considering the political, military, and ethical implications of managing the world's climate, these individuals hatch schemes with potential consequences that far outweigh anything their predecessors might have faced. Showing what can happen when fixing the sky becomes a dangerous experiment in pseudoscience, James Rodger Fleming traces the tragicomic history of the rainmakers, rain fakers, weather warriors, and climate engineers who have been both full of ideas and full of themselves. Weaving together stories from elite science, cutting-edge technology, and popular culture, Fleming examines issues of health and navigation in the 1830s, drought in the 1890s, aircraft safety in the 1930s, and world conflict since the 1940s. Killer hurricanes, ozone depletion, and global warming fuel the fantasies of today. Based on archival and primary research, Fleming's original story speaks to anyone who has a stake in sustaining the planet.
Download or read book Under a White Sky written by Elizabeth Kolbert and published by Crown. This book was released on 2022-04-05 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Sixth Extinction returns to humanity’s transformative impact on the environment, now asking: After doing so much damage, can we change nature, this time to save it? RECOMMENDED BY PRESIDENT OBAMA AND BILL GATES • SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR WRITING • ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Time, Esquire, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews • “Beautifully and insistently, Kolbert shows us that it is time to think radically about the ways we manage the environment.”—Helen Macdonald, The New York Times With a new afterword by the author That man should have dominion “over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth” is a prophecy that has hardened into fact. So pervasive are human impacts on the planet that it’s said we live in a new geological epoch: the Anthropocene. In Under a White Sky, Elizabeth Kolbert takes a hard look at the new world we are creating. Along the way, she meets biologists who are trying to preserve the world’s rarest fish, which lives in a single tiny pool in the middle of the Mojave; engineers who are turning carbon emissions to stone in Iceland; Australian researchers who are trying to develop a “super coral” that can survive on a hotter globe; and physicists who are contemplating shooting tiny diamonds into the stratosphere to cool the earth. One way to look at human civilization, says Kolbert, is as a ten-thousand-year exercise in defying nature. In The Sixth Extinction, she explored the ways in which our capacity for destruction has reshaped the natural world. Now she examines how the very sorts of interventions that have imperiled our planet are increasingly seen as the only hope for its salvation. By turns inspiring, terrifying, and darkly comic, Under a White Sky is an utterly original examination of the challenges we face.
Download or read book Under the Sky We Make written by Kimberly Nicholas PhD and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-03-23 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ** Los Angeles Times bestseller ** It's warming. It's us. We're sure. It's bad. But we can fix it. After speaking to the international public for close to fifteen years about sustainability, climate scientist Dr. Nicholas realized that concerned people were getting the wrong message about the climate crisis. Yes, companies and governments are hugely responsible for the mess we're in. But individuals CAN effect real, significant, and lasting change to solve this problem. Nicholas explores finding purpose in a warming world, combining her scientific expertise and her lived, personal experience in a way that seems fresh and deeply urgent: Agonizing over the climate costs of visiting loved ones overseas, how to find low-carbon love on Tinder, and even exploring her complicated family legacy involving supermarket turkeys. In her astonishing, bestselling book Under the Sky We Make, Nicholas does for climate science what Michael Pollan did more than a decade ago for the food on our plate: offering a hopeful, clear-eyed, and somehow also hilarious guide to effecting real change, starting in our own lives. Saving ourselves from climate apocalypse will require radical shifts within each of us, to effect real change in our society and culture. But it can be done. It requires, Dr. Nicholas argues, belief in our own agency and value, alongside a deep understanding that no one will ever hand us power--we're going to have to seize it for ourselves.
Download or read book Toxic Airs written by James Rodger Fleming and published by University of Pittsburgh Press. This book was released on 2014-03-23 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Toxic Airs brings together historians of medicine, environmental historians, historians of science and technology, and interdisciplinary scholars to address atmospheric issues on a spectrum of scales from body to place to planet. The chapters analyze airborne and atmospheric threats posed to humans, and contributors demonstrate how conceptions of toxicity have evolved and how humans have both created and mitigated toxins in the air. Specific topics discussed include medieval beliefs in the pestilent breath of witches, malarial theory in India, domestic and military use of tear gas, Gulf War Syndrome, Los Angeles smog, automotive emissions control, the epidemiological effects of air pollution, transboundary air pollution, ozone depletion, the contributions of contemporary artists to climate awareness, and the toxic history of carbon “die”-oxide. Overall, the essays provide a wide-ranging historical study of interest to students and scholars of many disciplines.
Download or read book Can Science Fix Climate Change written by Mike Hulme and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2014-06-04 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Climate change seems to be an insurmountable problem. Political solutions have so far had little impact. Some scientists are now advocating the so-called ‘Plan B’, a more direct way of reducing the rate of future warming by reflecting more sunlight back to space, creating a thermostat in the sky. In this book, Mike Hulme argues against this kind of hubristic techno-fix. Drawing upon a distinguished career studying the science, politics and ethics of climate change, he shows why using science to fix the global climate is undesirable, ungovernable and unattainable. Science and technology should instead serve the more pragmatic goals of increasing societal resilience to weather risks, improving regional air quality and driving forward an energy technology transition. Seeking to reset the planet’s thermostat is not the answer. Climate change seems to be an insurmountable problem. Political solutions have so far had little impact. Some scientists are now advocating the so-called ‘Plan B’, a more direct way of reducing the rate of future warming by reflecting more sunlight back to space, creating a thermostat in the sky. In this book, Mike Hulme argues against this kind of hubristic techno-fix. Drawing upon a distinguished career studying the science, politics and ethics of climate change, he shows why using science to fix the global climate is undesirable, ungovernable and unattainable. Science and technology should instead serve the more pragmatic goals of increasing societal resilience to weather risks, improving regional air quality and driving forward an energy technology transition. Seeking to reset the planet’s thermostat is not the answer.
Download or read book Historical Perspectives on Climate Change written by James Rodger Fleming and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2005-07-14 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This intriguing volume provides a thorough examination of the historical roots of global climate change as a field of inquiry, from the Enlightenment to the late twentieth century. Based on primary and archival sources, the book is filled with interesting perspectives on what people have understood, experienced, and feared about the climate and its changes in the past. Chapters explore climate and culture in Enlightenment thought; climate debates in early America; the development of international networks of observation; the scientific transformation of climate discourse; and early contributions to understanding terrestrial temperature changes, infrared radiation, and the carbon dioxide theory of climate. But perhaps most important, this book shows what a study of the past has to offer the interdisciplinary investigation of current environmental problems.
Download or read book Half the Sky written by Nicholas D. Kristof and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2010-06-01 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A passionate call to arms against our era’s most pervasive human rights violation—the oppression of women and girls in the developing world. From the bestselling authors of Tightrope, two of our most fiercely moral voices With Pulitzer Prize winners Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn as our guides, we undertake an odyssey through Africa and Asia to meet the extraordinary women struggling there, among them a Cambodian teenager sold into sex slavery and an Ethiopian woman who suffered devastating injuries in childbirth. Drawing on the breadth of their combined reporting experience, Kristof and WuDunn depict our world with anger, sadness, clarity, and, ultimately, hope. They show how a little help can transform the lives of women and girls abroad. That Cambodian girl eventually escaped from her brothel and, with assistance from an aid group, built a thriving retail business that supports her family. The Ethiopian woman had her injuries repaired and in time became a surgeon. A Zimbabwean mother of five, counseled to return to school, earned her doctorate and became an expert on AIDS. Through these stories, Kristof and WuDunn help us see that the key to economic progress lies in unleashing women’s potential. They make clear how so many people have helped to do just that, and how we can each do our part. Throughout much of the world, the greatest unexploited economic resource is the female half of the population. Countries such as China have prospered precisely because they emancipated women and brought them into the formal economy. Unleashing that process globally is not only the right thing to do; it’s also the best strategy for fighting poverty. Deeply felt, pragmatic, and inspirational, Half the Sky is essential reading for every global citizen.
Download or read book The Sky Blues written by Robbie Couch and published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. This book was released on 2021-04-06 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sky’s small town turns absolutely claustrophobic when his secret promposal plans get leaked to the entire school in this witty, heartfelt, and ultimately hopeful debut novel for fans of What if it’s Us? and I Wish You All the Best. Sky Baker may be openly gay, but in his small, insular town, making sure he was invisible has always been easier than being himself. Determined not to let anything ruin his senior year, Sky decides to make a splash at his high school’s annual beach bum party by asking his crush, Ali, to prom—and he has thirty days to do it. What better way to start living loud and proud than by pulling off the gayest promposal Rock Ledge, Michigan, has ever seen? Then, Sky’s plans are leaked by an anonymous hacker in a deeply homophobic e-blast that quickly goes viral. He’s fully prepared to drop out and skip town altogether—until his classmates give him a reason to fight back by turning his thirty-day promposal countdown into a school-wide hunt to expose the e-blast perpetrator. But what happens at the end of the thirty days? Will Sky get to keep his hard-won visibility? Or will his small-town blues stop him from being his true self?
Download or read book Holes in the Sky written by Patricia Polacco and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2018-09-11 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Miss Eula is back! In this heartwarming companion to Chicken Sunday, young Trisha is devastated when her grandmother passes away, but finds joy in bonds with a new friend, her new California neighborhood—and the invincible Miss Eula. There will never be anyone like her grandmother, Patricia Polacco thinks, when her grandmother passes away. But when she and her family move to California—in the middle of a drought—she meets a new friend, the irrepressible Stewart, and his amazing grandmother, Miss Eula, who not only takes Trisha under her wing, but, with Trisha and Stewart, steps up to lead their entire extraordinarily diverse neighborhood to help a hurting neighbor—and her once lush garden—survive the drought. Trisha's grandmother's old saying about the stars being Holes in the Sky turns out to be Miss Eula's, too, convincing Trisha that she has miraculously discovered another unforgettable grandmother.
Download or read book Fixing Feedback written by Georgia Murch and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2016-05-02 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Feedback is broken — here's how to fix it to create a highly engaged workplace with high performing leaders and employees Fixing Feedback is not just another management book — it's a smart, refreshing, practical guide to feedback in the workplace. Everyone already knows how important feedback is, and we all know we should be giving it and receiving it regularly — yet we still do it poorly or avoid it entirely. This book shows you how to do it right. You'll learn what exactly constitutes useful feedback, how to deliver it effectively, how to receive it gracefully and how to use it to strengthen yourself, your team and your business. You'll learn critical communication skills that you can put into practice today, and get on track to building a "feedback culture" that results in highly engaged, highly productive employees. The way you communicate dictates how you build relationships and make decisions. It's the difference between being remarkable and being a d!ck. Poor communication is a major force driving feedback into the ground, and it can be extremely costly for the company as a whole. This book shows you how to turn the ship around by making feedback a meaningful — and welcome — part of your everyday workflow and overall company culture. Understand "remarkable feedback", and how it changes people and workplaces Self-assess your communication style and gauge the impact it has on others Deliver meaningful feedback using a set of pragmatic tools and techniques Confront the personal issues that prevent you from effectively receiving feedback Learn what organisations need to drive to create a 'feedback culture' When organisations fail to grasp the importance of investing in their people effectively, employees disengage. Building a meaningful feedback culture, on the other hand, makes your organisation a place where people want to work, want to achieve and want to be the best. It's all about effective communication. Fixing Feedback provides no-nonsense guidance toward equipping your people to succeed.
Download or read book Repairing the World written by Linda Epstein and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2023-07-04 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A young girl grapples with her grief over a tragic loss with the help of a new perspective from Hebrew school and supportive new friends in this heartfelt and “accessible” (Kirkus Reviews) middle grade novel about learning to look forward. Twelve-year-old Daisy and Ruby are totally inseparable. They’ve grown up together, and Daisy has always counted on having Ruby there to pave the way, encourage her to try new things, and to see the magic in the world. Then Ruby is killed in a tragic accident while on vacation, and Daisy’s life is shattered. Now Daisy finds herself having to face the big things in her life—like starting middle school and becoming a big sister—without her best friend. It’s hard when you feel sad all the time. But thanks to new friends, new insights, and supportive family members, Daisy is able to see what life after Ruby can look like. And as she reaches beyond that to help repair the world around her, she is reminded that friendship is eternal, and that magic can be found in the presence of anyone who chooses to embrace it.
Download or read book A Crack in the Sky written by Mark Peter Hughes and published by Yearling. This book was released on 2011-08-09 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thirteen-year-old Eli Papadapoulous is worried. Even though he's part of in the most powerful family in the world. Even though his grandfather founded InfiniCorp, the massive corporation that runs everything in the bustling dome-cities. Even though InfiniCorp ads and billboards are plastered everywhere, proclaiming: DON'T WORRY! INFINICORP IS TAKING CARE OF EVERYTHING! Recently, Eli noticed there's something wrong with the artificial sky. It keeps shorting out, displaying strange colors and random, pixellated images. And though the Department of Cool and Comfortable Air is working overtime, the dome-city is hotter than it's ever been. Eli has been raised to believe that the dome-cities are safe and comfortable; that the important thing is to keep working, keep consuming; that InfiniCorp knows better than he, and he should leave everything in their hands. But now he begins asking questions.
Download or read book The Sky Is the Limit written by Lisa Swerling and published by Chronicle Books LLC. This book was released on 2020-03-03 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the bestselling creators of Happiness Is comes a celebration of the many delightful, triumphant, silly, sweet, life-changing experiences that lie ahead. A world full of wonder is waiting for you . . . the sky is the limit of what you can do! The only thing needed to begin this marvelous adventure? YOU! From far-reaching endeavors to the quieter milestones that have a magic all of their own, this book celebrates life's most meaningful moments, and encourages readers to reach for a sky's worth of possibilities. • A joyous all-ages book perfect for families and children celebrating everyday accomplishments • An inspiring graduation read • Lisa Swerling and Ralph Lazar are the creators of the critically acclaimed and bestselling Happiness Is... series. In the spirit of Yay, You!, I Knew You Could, and Oh the Places You'll Go, The Sky Is the Limit will hold a cherished place in the hearts of readers young and old. • Read-aloud toddler books Lisa Swerling and Ralph Lazar are famed illustrators, the authors of the New York Times bestseller Me Without You, and the creators of the internationally beloved Happiness Is . . . brand. They live in Marin County, California.
Download or read book Make It Rain written by Kristine C. Harper and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2018-06-04 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Weather control. Juxtaposing those two words is enough to raise eyebrows in a world where even the best weather models still fail to nail every forecast, and when the effects of climate change on sea level height, seasonal averages of weather phenomena, and biological behavior are being watched with interest by all, regardless of political or scientific persuasion. But between the late nineteenth century—when the United States first funded an attempt to “shock” rain out of clouds—and the late 1940s, rainmaking (as it had been known) became weather control. And then things got out of control. In Make It Rain, Kristine C. Harper tells the long and somewhat ludicrous history of state-funded attempts to manage, manipulate, and deploy the weather in America. Harper shows that governments from the federal to the local became helplessly captivated by the idea that weather control could promote agriculture, health, industrial output, and economic growth at home, or even be used as a military weapon and diplomatic tool abroad. Clear fog for landing aircraft? There’s a project for that. Gentle rain for strawberries? Let’s do it! Enhanced snowpacks for hydroelectric utilities? Check. The heyday of these weather control programs came during the Cold War, as the atmosphere came to be seen as something to be defended, weaponized, and manipulated. Yet Harper demonstrates that today there are clear implications for our attempts to solve the problems of climate change.
Download or read book Who Owns the Sky written by Peter Barnes and published by Shearwater Books. This book was released on 2001 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dividends would be paid annually, in much the same way that residents of Alaska today receive cash benefits from oil companies that drill in their state."--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book Buried in the Sky written by Peter Zuckerman and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2012-06-11 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In August 2008, when 11 climbers lost their lives on K2, the world's most dangerous peak, two Sherpas survived and are two of the most skillful mountaineers on earth.
