Global Resources and the Environment
Cambridge University Press, 6/21/2018
EAN 9781316625415, ISBN10: 1316625419
Paperback, 536 pages, 24.6 x 17.5 x 2.8 cm
Language: English
In the past few decades, sustainability of natural resources and the social and environmental issues that surround them have become increasingly topical. This multidisciplinary book discusses the complex relationships between society, natural resources and the environment. Major resources including water, agriculture, energy, minerals and forests are considered, as well as different facets of the environment including climate, landforms and biodiversity. Each resource is discussed in the context of both environmental and socio-economic factors affecting their present and future distribution and demand. Presenting a balanced, comprehensive overview of the issues surrounding natural resources and sustainability, this accessible volume will be of interest to policy makers, resource managers, graduate students and researchers in the natural and social sciences.
Preface
Part I. Introduction, Dynamic Systems, and Change
1. Socio-environmental systems
2. A perspective on dynamic systems
3. Change, sustainability, and resilience
Part II. People
4. Where people live, communicate, and interact
5. People, societies, populations, and changes
6. Resources, governments, and other social influences
Part III. Climates
7. Global distribution of climates
8. Greenhouse gases, atmosphere, and climates
9. Past and future climate changes
Part IV. Landforms
10. Landforms and soils
11. Bedrock landforms
12. Landforms of transported materials
Part V. Biodiversity
13. Biodiversity
individual species
14. Biodiversity
communities and landscapes
15. Robust and threatened species, communities
16. Managing biodiversity
Part VI. Water
17. The hydrologic cycle
18. The annual hydrograph and water use
19. Managing and mitigating the hydrologic system
Part VII. Agriculture
20. Food groups and nutrition
21. Agriculture and the green revolution
22. Future agriculture production and distribution
Part VIII. Energy
23. Energy sources, the energy cycle, exergy
24. Conserving energy and renewable energy
25. Future energy
reducing fossil fuel use
Part IX. Minerals
26. Rocks and mineral properties, mining
27. Rocks and minerals
production, use, and distribution
Part X. Forests
28. Forests, ecosystem services, and timber
29. Forest distribution, area, and volume changes
30. Silviculture, forest degradation, and landscape management
Part XI. Perspective
31. Integrating the environment, resources, and people
Appendix I. Country groups used in analyses
Appendix II. Elements, chemical symbols, atomic numbers, and masses
Index.