Social Ecology

Humans take more than their geological share of water, but they do not benefit from it equally. This imbalance has created an era of intense water scarcity that affects the security of individuals, states, and the global economy. For many, this brazen water grab and the social inequalities it produces reflect the lack of a coherent philosophy connecting people to the planet. Challenging this view, Jeremy Schmidt shows how water was made a “resource” that linked geology, politics, and culture to American institutions.

American engineers have done astounding things to bend the Mississippi River to their will: forcing one of its tributaries to flow uphill, transforming over 1000 miles of roiling currents into a placid staircase of water, and wresting the lower half of the river apart from its floodplain. American law has aided and abetted these feats. But despite our best efforts, so-called "natural disasters" continue to strike the Mississippi basin as raging floodwaters decimate waterfront communities and abandoned towns literally crumble into the Gulf of Mexico.

In this dynamic account, award-winning author Paul Fleischman arms teens with the basic tools to uncover vested interests and falsehoods by vetting sources, following the money, and checking references so that they can make informed decisions about what actions to take in the worldwide battle against climate change, overconsumption, and dwindling resources.

In this fascinating book, Terry O'Connor explores a distinction that is deeply ingrained in much of the language that we use in zoology, human-animal studies, and archaeology - the difference between wild and domestic. For thousands of years, humans have categorized animals in simple terms, often according to the degree of control that we have over them, and have tended to see the long story of human-animal relations as one of increasing control and management for human benefit.

This book revisits some simple scientific research data which could be considered as the equivalent to Chicken Little's alarm call that the sky is falling. Based on materials widely distributed in the press, the author examines how the superstitions gain a place in the scientific research work, debunking some of them with simple arguments that can be taken from most high school manuals.

In this young readers edition of the New York Times bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert tells us why and how human beings have altered life on the planet in a way no species has before.

You don’t have to be an animal rights activist to take an interest in how we treat other creatures. All of us, with few exceptions, use animals in some way: for food, research, recreation, and companionship. In Britain, we eat around a billion chickens every year, while 60 percent of all mammals on Earth, by biomass, are now livestock.

Grandpa says circles are all around us. He points to the rainbow that rises high in the sky after a thundercloud has come. Can you see? That's only half of the circle. That rest of it is down below, in the earth. He and his granddaughter meditate on gardens and seeds, on circles seen and unseen, inside and outside us, on where our bodies come from and where they return to. They share and create family traditions in this stunning video adaptation of the Pura Belpre award-winning exploration of the cycles of life and nature.

Somos um país urbano: 84% da população brasileira concentra-se em cidades e ao menos metade vive em municípios com mais de 100 mil habitantes. Mas a vida urbana não traz apenas novas oportunidades. Ela propicia doenças provocadas por falta de saneamento, picadas de mosquitos, poluição, violência, ritmo frenético... E tudo isso não ocorre mais apenas nas grandes cidades, mas também nas médias e mesmo pequenas, quase sempre negligenciadas pelo poder público e pelos próprios cidadãos.

Was sagen einem Astrophysiker die Sterne über die Welt und das Leben? Kann ein Wirtschaftsprofessor die Entwicklung der Finanzwelt vorhersagen und was bedeutet das für unseren Alltag? Und überhaupt: Gibt es sie, die Formel für die Zukunft? Antworten auf solche Fragen geben Harald Lesch und Thomas Schwartz in ihrem neuen Buch. Sie verbinden Mathematik, Ökologie und vor allem viel Alltagsklugheit zu einem brillanten Blick in das Hier, Jetzt und Morgen.

Natur- und Artenschutz sind in aller Munde, aber ein Aspekt, der unsere Natur massiv bedroht, wird dabei meist außer Acht gelassen: Die Lichtverschmutzung – das künstliche Licht, das unsere Städte und Dörfer erhellt. Alle Rhythmen der Natur sind letztlich abhängig vom Wechsel zwischen Tag und Nacht. Fällt dieser Wechsel weg, weil die Nacht verschwindet, dann hat das gravierende Folgen. Vögel singen in allzu heller Umgebung mitten in der Nacht.

For centuries, the West has produced stories about the future in which humans use advanced science and technology to transform the Earth. Michael Rawson uses a wide range of works that include Francis Bacon's New Atlantis, the science fiction novels of Jules Verne, and even the speculations of think tanks like the RAND Corporation to reveal the environmental paradox at the heart of these narratives: the single-minded expectation of unlimited growth on a finite planet.

Die grüne Wiege der Menschheit: Die faszinierende Geschichte der Menschen und des Dschungels. Das Schicksal der Menschheit ist schon immer mit dem der Tropenwälder verbunden. Der Anthropologe und Archäologe Patrick Roberts nimmt uns mit auf eine spannende Reise durch die Jahrmillionen. Er schildert, wie die Wälder entstanden und das Aussehen unseres Planeten entscheidend prägten. Erst durch sie fanden Amphibien den Weg an Land, entwickelten sich neue Pflanzen- und Tierarten - und schließlich der Mensch.

2021 ist ein Jahr der Zäsur. Mit der Bundestagswahl endet nach 16 Jahren die Ära Merkel, und in einer historischen Entscheidung stärkt das Bundesverfassungsgericht die Freiheitsrechte der jüngeren Generation. Die Ökologie steht nun endlich im Zentrum aller Zukunftsfragen: Wirtschaft, Verkehr, Ernährung, aber auch Wissenschaft, Journalismus und Politik - elementare Bereiche der Gesellschaft müssen neu gedacht werden. Große Umbrüche stehen bevor. Und es hängt viel davon ab, ob wir gemeinsame Lösungen finden.

Black Snake is the story of four leaders - LaDonna Allard, Jasilyn Charger, Lisa DeVille, and Kandi White - and their fight against the pipeline. It is the story of a new generation of environmental activists, galvanized at Standing Rock, becoming the protectors of America's natural resources.

Deep in the heart of the Amazon, the city of Rondon do Pará, Brazil, lived for decades in the shadow of land barons, or fazendeiros, who maintained control of the region through unscrupulous land grabs and egregious human rights violations. They razed and burned the jungle, expelled small-scale farmers and Indigenous tribes from their lands, and treated their farmhands as slaves—all with impunity.

Where fresh water appears to be abundant and generally accessible, chronic pollution may be relatively ignored as a public issue. Yet there are those whose lives, livelihoods, and traditions are touched directly by the destructive albeit essential relationship between humans and water.