Stability of Life on Earth: Principal Subject of Scientific Research in the 21st Century

ISBN-13: 9783540203285 / Angielski / Twarda / 2004 / 166 str.

Kirill Y. Kondratyev; Kim S. Losev; Maria D. Ananicheva

Opis

This book shows how human activity on local, regional and global scales has perturbed natural biogeochemical cycles, "colliding" with Nature. The authors demonstrate how the scale and intensity of human-induced destruction of Nature and resultant feedback mechanisms have continuously expanded. They consider the likelihood of increasing numbers of natural disasters as a result of such activities, and propose that sustainable development become a principal research topic for the 21st Century.

Spis treści

1. Ecological-geographic space: a fresh view of the old problems,- 2. Geographic environment: structure and processes,- 3. Structural units of the geographic environment,- 4. Humans are changing the geographic environment,- 5. Formation of world community and its ideologies,- 6. XX century: time of collison with nature,- 7. Scientific basis of life stability,- 8. Carbon budget, role of biota and ecosystems' cost,- 9. Territorial expansion as one of the mechanisms for growing damage from natural disasters.