San Antonio College Library

In an effort to rethink our responses to the crisis of global warming, a small but increasingly influential group of scientists is exploring proposals for planned human intervention in the climate system: a stratospheric veil against the sun, the cultivation of photosynthetic plankton, fleets of unmanned ships seeding the clouds -- all technologies of the new field of "geoengineering." In this book, journalist Oliver Morton explores the history, politics,...

In a time of darkening environmental prospects, frightening religious fundamentalism, and moribund liberalism, the remarkable and historically unprecedented rise of religious environmentalism is a profound source of hope. Theologians are recovering nature-honoring elements of traditional religions and forging bold new theologies connecting devotion to God and spiritual truth with love for God's creation and care for the Earth. And religious people...

"Reordering the Natural World is a account of the many and varied ways in which animals and humans interact in the urban context. In looking at these interactions, Annabelle Sabloff argues that the everyday practices of contemporary capitalist society contribute to our alienation from the rest of nature. At the same time, however, she reveals the often disguised affinities and sense of connection that urban Canadians nonetheless manifest in their...

What does successful adaptation look like? This is a question we are frequently asked by planners, policy makers and other professionals charged with the task of developing and implementing adaptation strategies. While adaptation is increasingly recognized as an important climate risk management strategy, and on-the-ground adaptation planning activity is becoming more common-place, there is no clear guidance as to what success would look like, what...

Journalist Weisman offers an original approach to questions of humanity's impact on the planet. Drawing on the expertise of engineers, atmospheric scientists, art conservators, zoologists, oil refiners, marine biologists, astrophysicists, religious leaders, and paleontologists, he illustrates what the planet might be like today if humans disappeared. He explains how our massive infrastructure would collapse and finally vanish without human presence;...

In 11 essays, the contributors examine the connections between environmental change and other major topics of early modern world history: population growth, commercialization, imperialism, industrialization, the fossil fuel revolution, and more.

The former Soviet empire spanned eleven time zones and contained half the world's forests; vast deposits of oil, gas, and coal; various ores; major rivers such as the Volga, Don, and Angara; and extensive biodiversity. These resources and animals, as well as the people who lived in the former Soviet Union - Slavs, Armenians, Georgians, Azeris, Kazakhs and Tajiks, indigenous Nenets and Chukchi - were threatened by environmental degradation and extensive...

Nichols chronicles the Enlightenment view of 'nature' as static and separate from humans as it moved towards the Romantic 'nature' characterized by dynamic links among all living things.

"Most of us recognize that climate change is real, and yet we do nothing to stop it. What is this psychological mechanism that allows us to know something is true but act as if it is not? George Marshall's search for the answers brings him face-to-face with Nobel Prize-winning psychologists and the activists of the Texas Tea Party; the world's leading climate scientists and the people who denounce them; liberal environmentalists and conservative evangelicals....