Gaia's Limits PDF Download

Author: Rud Istvan
Publisher: Strategic Book Publishing
ISBN: 1622122747
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
This illustrated essay concerns sustainability. Its simple thesis is that trees do not grow to the sky. Basic facts are used to figure Earth’s human carrying capacity. Soft food and hard petroleum limits are reached within present lifetimes. Liquifying other fossil fuels and biofuels cannot make up for future petroleum shortfalls given a world population at sustainable food limits, with present GDP levels. The issue is not yet addressed by public policy, although more serious and sooner than climate change.

Author: James Lovelock
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198784880
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
Gaia, in which James Lovelock puts forward his inspirational and controversial idea that the Earth functions as a single organism, with life influencing planetary processes to form a self-regulating system aiding its own survival, is now a classic work that continues to provoke heated scientific debate.

Author: J. E. Lovelock
Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks
ISBN: 0192862189
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
This classic work is reissued with a new preface by the author. Written for non-scientists the idea is put forward that life on Earth functions as a single organism.

Author: Gary C. Bryner
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780847694891
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
Can environmentalism evolve into a powerful social movement that transforms human practices in ways that are ecologically sustainable? Gary C. Bryner contends that it is in our self-interest as a species to ensure that environmental movements coalesce in the service of sustainability. From the very first Earth Day to the setting of Agenda 21 for the new millennium, this book traces the actors, the issues, and the institutions involved in moving environmentalism from a loose collection of fuzzy groups and goals to a new global force for change. Will the next phase of environmental action resemble the WTO protests in Seattle, the UN Kyoto Protocols, or a Think Tank inside the Washington Beltway? Gaia's Wager shows that movements play an important role between political parties and interest groups on the domestic scene and the unruly forces of globalization internationally. Only social movements can catalyze a response to the global environmental threat that has a chance of both capturing imaginations and institutionalizing progress toward environmental sustainability. Above all, Gaia's Wager bets on the confluence of big ideas and social action to yield a more hopeful environmental future.

Author: Bruno Latour
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0745684351
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
The emergence of modern sciences in the seventeenth century profoundly renewed our understanding of nature. For the last three centuries new ideas of nature have been continually developed by theology, politics, economics, and science, especially the sciences of the material world. The situation is even more unstable today, now that we have entered an ecological mutation of unprecedented scale. Some call it the Anthropocene, but it is best described as a new climatic regime. And a new regime it certainly is, since the many unexpected connections between human activity and the natural world oblige every one of us to reopen the earlier notions of nature and redistribute what had been packed inside. So the question now arises: what will replace the old ways of looking at nature? This book explores a potential candidate proposed by James Lovelock when he chose the name 'Gaia' for the fragile, complex system through which living phenomena modify the Earth. The fact that he was immediately misunderstood proves simply that his readers have tried to fit this new notion into an older frame, transforming Gaia into a single organism, a kind of giant thermostat, some sort of New Age goddess, or even divine Providence. In this series of lectures on 'natural religion,' Bruno Latour argues that the complex and ambiguous figure of Gaia offers, on the contrary, an ideal way to disentangle the ethical, political, theological, and scientific aspects of the now obsolete notion of nature. He lays the groundwork for a future collaboration among scientists, theologians, activists, and artists as they, and we, begin to adjust to the new climatic regime.

Author: Eileen Crist
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262033755
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 782

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Book Description
Essays link Gaian science to such global environmental quandaries as climate change and biodiversity destruction, providing perspectives from science, philosophy, politics, and technology.

Author: Frank Schätzing
Publisher: Arcadia
ISBN: 0857385402
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 1636

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Book Description
Perfect for fans of Neal Stephenson and Peter F. Hamilton, an epic science-fiction novel from Germany's most successful thriller writer. The first space elevator connects the Earth to the Moon, prompting a breathless race between the Americans and Chinese to get to the Moon's helium-3 - the rare element that promises to solve all the world's energy problems. In Shanghai, cyber-detective Owen Jericho has been hired to find Yoyo, a missing girl, but what started as a routine investigation soon develops into a nightmarish hunt. There's a crazed assassin hot on his heels, all because Yoyo accidentally stumbled onto a secret society called Hydra - and now it's not just her life at risk. Following the Hydra trail takes Jericho and Yoyo round the world and finally to the Gaia, the Moon's very first hotel, where a billionaire entrepreneur is entertaining some of the world's richest and most influential men and women But the secret society that is Hydra has its own plans for the Earth - and the Moon. And nothing and no one will be allowed to stand in its way.

Author: Rud Istvan
Publisher: Strategic Book Publishing & Rights Agency
ISBN: 1631356291
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 573

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Book Description
From the Foreword by Prof. Judith Curry of Georgia Tech: “Istvan’s insightful and incisive writing in Blowing Smoke tackles a diverse array of topics related to climate and energy that are highly relevant to the current public debate. His writing is accessible to the public who may not have the inclination, the time, or the ability to dig deep into the literature and emerge with a simple factual 'big picture'… Blowing Smoke is an important contribution to the public understanding of the debate on climate change and energy.”

Author: Rud Istvan
Publisher: Strategic Book Publishing
ISBN: 1609112989
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
This book is a primer on critical thinking. Without it, the Internet is only a misinformation highway. The dark arts of untruthfulness are ubiquitous in 'official' information. The general techniques used to distort or misrepresent truth are conceptually explored, illustrated by dozens of examples covering a wide range of subjects. Does classroom size reduction improve education? Can tight oil shale provide US petroleum independence? Are eggs unhealthy? Does the Chevy Volt really get 60mpg-e? Is global warming a hoax or a crisis? The many thought provoking examples are entertaining as well as enlightening.

Author: Shirley J. Nicholson
Publisher: Quest Books
ISBN: 9780835606851
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
A new collection of essays on the living intelligence within nature from various spiritual and scientific perspectives, by James Lovelock, Dorothy MacLean, Joan Halifax, Thomas Berry, John Seed, Serge King, author of Earth Energies, and others.