Kategoria BISAC: Science >> Life Sciences - Ecology

We have learned not to take food seriously: we eat as much as we want of what we want when we want it, and we seldom think about the health and environmental consequences of our choices. But the fact is that every choice we make has an impact on our health and on the environment. In The Vegetarian Imperative, Anand M. Saxena, a scientist and a vegetarian for most of his life, explains why we need to make better choices: for better health, to eliminate world hunger, and, ultimately, to save the planet.

Our insatiable appetite for animal-based foods contributes directly to...

Urban subsurface resources and particularly urban groundwater are vulnerable to environmental impacts, and their rational management is of major importance. In this book a multidisciplinary team of specialists and scientists presents innovative process-oriented approaches to the sustainable use of these resources. The included case studies from northwestern Switzerland describe representative environments and are relevant for urban areas in general. They illustrate the protection of groundwater; river restoration; engineering and hydrogeological questions related to urban infrastructure...

The book aims at synthesizing our current knowledge of Acipenser sturio and its management. This species, one of the most widespread sturgeon species all over Western Europe ranging from the Black Sea to the Baltic, is now on the verge of extinction. Major aspects of its biology and management, including mismanagement, are provided in a historic perspective. Similarly, the changes in the restoration programs (in situ and ex situ) initiated in France and Germany are presented. As the species occurred in sympatry with Acipenser oxyrinchus in Germany and Poland and very recently in France as...

High alpine plants have attracted public interest since centuries because of their often beautiful appearance, their role in traditional medicine and their obvious fitness in a harsh environment. While ecophysiology could already explain a number of survival processes in mountain plants, a survey of current research on cell physiology and ultrastructure was missing. This book brings together experts from different fields, who use a broad spectrum of methods to investigate the physiological and cellular adaptation of alpine plants from tree line to the upper limits. The combination of often...

So writes David Orr in Down to the Wire, a sober and eloquent assessment of climate destabilization and an urgent call to action. Orr describes how political negligence, an economy based on the insatiable consumption of trivial goods, and a disdain for the well-being of future generations have brought us to the tipping point that biologist Edward O....

All systems produce waste as part of a cycle--bacteria, humans, combustion engines, even one as large and complex as a city. To some extent, this waste can be absorbed, processed, or recycled--though never completely. In Wasted World, Rob Hengeveld reveals how a long history of human consumption has left our world drowning in this waste.This is a compelling and urgent work that traces the related histories of population growth and resource consumption. As Hengeveld explains, human life (and population growth) depends not only on mineral resources but also on energy. People first...

Along with reproduction, balancing energy expenditure with the limits of resource acquisition is essential for both a species and a population to survive. But energy is a limited resource, as we know well, so birds and mammals the most energy-intensive fauna on the planet must reduce energy expenditures to maintain this balance, some taking small steps, and others extreme measures.
Here Brian K. McNab draws on his over sixty years in the field to provide a comprehensive account of the energetics of birds and mammals, one fully integrated with their natural history. McNab begins with an...

The work builds on the results of the COMPETE Bioenergy Competence Platform for Africa, which was supported by the European Commission and coordinated by WIP Renewable Energies, Germany. The five sections cover biomass production and use, biomass technologies and markets in Africa, biomass policies, sustainability, and financial and socio-economic issues. This valuable work is, in effect, a single-source treatment of a key energy sector in a part of the world which still has a lot of unrealised potential for development.