Climate Change - Environment and Civilization in the Middle East PDF Download

Author: Arie S. Issar
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 366206264X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
This survey of ancient levels of lakes, rivers and sea, and changes in stalagmites and sediments shows an astonishing correlation between climate change and rise and fall of civilizations in the Middle East. Warm periods were characterized by aridization, economic crisis and mass migration. Cold periods brought abundant rain, prosperity and settlement. The authors conclude that climate change was the decisive factor in the origins of the "cradle of civilization".

Author: Arie S Issar
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9783662062654
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description

Author: Jared Diamond
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0141976969
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 608

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Book Description
From the author of Guns, Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive is a visionary study of the mysterious downfall of past civilizations. Now in a revised edition with a new afterword, Jared Diamond's Collapse uncovers the secret behind why some societies flourish, while others founder - and what this means for our future. What happened to the people who made the forlorn long-abandoned statues of Easter Island? What happened to the architects of the crumbling Maya pyramids? Will we go the same way, our skyscrapers one day standing derelict and overgrown like the temples at Angkor Wat? Bringing together new evidence from a startling range of sources and piecing together the myriad influences, from climate to culture, that make societies self-destruct, Jared Diamond's Collapse also shows how - unlike our ancestors - we can benefit from our knowledge of the past and learn to be survivors. 'A grand sweep from a master storyteller of the human race' - Daily Mail 'Riveting, superb, terrifying' - Observer 'Gripping ... the book fulfils its huge ambition, and Diamond is the only man who could have written it' - Economis 'This book shines like all Diamond's work' - Sunday Times

Author: Diana K. Davis
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
The landscapes of the Middle East have captured our imaginations throughout history. Images of endless golden dunes, camel caravans, isolated desert oases, and rivers lined with palm trees have often framed written and visual representations of the region. Embedded in these portrayals is the common belief that the environment, in most places, has been deforested and desertified by centuries of misuse. It is precisely such orientalist environmental imaginaries, increasingly undermined by contemporary ecological data, that the eleven authors in this volume question. This is the first volume to critically examine culturally constructed views of the environmental history of the Middle East and suggest that they have often benefitted elites at the expense of the ecologies and the peoples of the region. The contributors expose many of the questionable policies and practices born of these environmental imaginaries and related histories that have been utilized in the region since the colonial period. They further reveal how power, in the form of development programs, notions of nationalism, and hydrological maps, for instance, relates to environmental knowledge production.

Author: Steven Mithen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139496670
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 543

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Book Description
A unique interdisciplinary study of the relationships between climate, hydrology and human society from 20,000 years ago to the present day within the Jordan Valley. It describes how state-of-the-art models can simulate the past, present and future climates of the Near East, reviews and provides new evidence for environmental change from geological deposits, builds hydrological models for the River Jordan and associated wadis and explains how present day urban and rural communities manage their water supply. The volume provides a new approach and new methods that can be applied for exploring the relationships between climate, hydrology and human society in arid and semi-arid regions throughout the world. It is an invaluable reference for researchers and advanced students concerned with the impacts of climate change and hydrology on human society, especially in the Near East.

Author: Alasdair Drysdale
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538182548
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 411

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Book Description
This contemporary text—the first in over a decade on the region—presents the geography of the Middle East and North Africa, defined as the Arab World, Israel, Turkey, Iran, and Afghanistan. Thematically organized, the book’s eleven chapters focus on the region’s physical and climatic setting, demographic characteristics, migration patterns, religious and linguistic diversity, political map, offshore claims, oil and gas resources, and subregions and states. Within this framework, Drysdale emphasizes pressing current problems: the impact of climate change in a region where some areas already suffer from extreme summer heat and aridity, the challenge of providing additional water in a region where per capita availability of freshwater is already the lowest in the world, the impact of high fertility and rapid population growth in a fragile environment where economies are often unable to absorb young workers entering the labor force, the looming prospect of an aging population, the effects of out- and in-migration, the diverse impact and role of Islam in daily and public life, the integrative consequences of linguistic and ethnic diversity, the evolution and imperfections of the political map, ongoing territorial and boundary disputes that often have global repercussions, external dependence on the region’s prolific oil and gas resources, and the extreme regional inequalities associated with their presence or absence. This timely and insightful analysis is essential reading for students of the region who need a better understanding of key regional characteristics, challenges, and issues.

Author: Hans Günter Brauch
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 364217776X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1816

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Book Description
Coping with Global Environmental Change, Disasters and Security - Threats, Challenges, Vulnerabilities and Risks reviews conceptual debates and case studies focusing on disasters and security threats, challenges, vulnerabilities and risks in Europe, the Mediterranean and other regions. It discusses social science concepts of vulnerability and risks, global, regional and national security challenges, global warming, floods, desertification and drought as environmental security challenges, water and food security challenges and vulnerabilities, vulnerability mapping of environmental security challenges and risks, contributions of remote sensing to the recognition of security risks, mainstreaming early warning of conflicts and hazards and provides conceptual and policy conclusions.

Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004444971
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 359

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Book Description
Middle East and North Africa: Climate, Culture, and Conflicts – too hot to handle? The volume offers an account of ideas, historical case studies and current debates on climate change and its consequences from perspectives of eco-theology, archeology, history, geography, political science and technology.

Author: Harry Verhoeven
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0190916680
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 359

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Book Description
Offers a critical and realistic reassessment of the threats posed to the environment in the Middle East, and what can be done about them.

Author: Fathi Zereini
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3540850473
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 558

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Book Description
"Climatic Change and Water Resources in the Middle East and North Africa" is dedicated to high-priority topics related to the impact of climate change on water resources in a water scarce region. The subject is described and discussed in three main chapters and different case studies. The three main chapters are (1) Climatic changes - sources and effects on the water cycle, (2) Impact of climate change on water resources, (3) Water resources and water management. These chapters are split up into further 26 sections. A total of 64 individuals from many countries have made contributions to this book. All topics in this book are complimentary and contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the interactions between global climate change, world water cycle and water resources. A valuable and meaningful interdisciplinary mixture of topics is combined in this book which will be of great interest to many scientists.