Natur

A study of sea monsters on medieval and Renaissance maps.

This pocket field guide to identifying 230 common Alpine flowers is packed with all the information you need to recognise your favourites while out in the mountains. Designed for the non-specialist, this little handbook is arranged by colour and also includes a glossary of flower parts and an introduction which describes the amazing lengths that these tiny gems go to to survive at altitude. Alpine expert author Gillian Price says: 'It never ceases to amaze me that such tiny plants can spend months on end buried under metres of snow and ice - weathering temperatures as low as minus 25(deg)C - then sprout back to life when things thaw out and warm up. In springtime you can spot the fragile purple petals of the Alpine Snowbell pushing their way through snow - they contain an anti-freeze that enables them to melt it. Masters of adaptation and survival, alpine flowers can trap insects, store precious water, expel excess minerals and fool insects.' Each flower entry includes a clear photograph and essential description along with its name in English, Latin, German, French and Italian and interesting information about the origins of some of the more curious flower names. Each one is also indexed by its English and its Latin name so you can follow up a hunch about a name or find out more about a flower.

In this Very Short Introduction Jamie Woodward examines the environmental shifts that took place during the Great Ice Age of the Quaternary Period. Looking at evidence from the continents, the oceans, and the ice core records, he explores the evolution of ideas about our geological past, the great debates, and the human stories behind it all.

Distant relatives of modern lobsters, horseshoe crabs, and spiders, trilobites swam the planet's prehistoric seas for 300 million years, from the Lower Cambrian to the end of the Permian eras - and they did so very capably. This is a revealing guide to these surreal arthropods of ancient Earth.

Unique and devastating record of animal trafficking industry. Publication coincides with the London Global Summit hosted by David Cameron.

In this extraordinary memoir we look at Africa's wonders through the eyes of a visionary, live through hair-raising adventure and personal sorrow, and also bear witness to a natural world now largely lost from view.

Explores the rise, fall, and rebirth of one of the nation's most important urban public landscapes, and more significantly, the role public spaces play in shaping people's relationships with the natural world. This book describes the impact of floods, disease, and changing technologies on New Orleans's interactions with the Mississippi.

';A superb biography, not to be missed either by armchair explorers or students of human naturereveals the famed missionary and explorer as he really was.'Cleveland Plain DealerDavid Livingstone is revered as one of history's greatest explorers and missionaries, the first European to cross Africa, and the first to find Victoria Falls and the source of the Congo River. In this exciting new edition of his biography, Tim Jeal, author of the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning Stanley, draws on fresh sources and archival discoveries to provide the most fully rounded portrait of this complicated mandogged by failure throughout his life despite his full share of success.Using Livingstone's original field notebooks, Jeal finds that the explorer's problems with his African followers were far graver than previously understood. From recently discovered letters he elaborates on the explorer's decision to send his wife, Mary, back home to England. He also uncovers fascinating information about Livingstone's importance to the British Empire and about his relationship with the journalist-adventurer Henry Morton Stanley. In addition, Jeal here evokes the full pathos of the explorer's final journey. This masterful, updated biography also features an excellent selection of new maps and illustrations.';Fascinating.'Los Angeles Times';A thrilling and in the end moving workThe Livingstone who emerges is a man of terrifying dimensions.'Irish Press

In this new reading of maps and map making, Harley undertakes a surprising journey into the nature of the social and political unconscious.

This text traces Armenia's past from ancient times to the end of the 20th century through more than 200 colour maps containing information about physical geography, demography, and sociological, religious, cultural and linguistic history.

Examines the sustainability of hunting as practiced by rural peoples. This book provides a viewpoint on the ecological and human aspects of this hunting. It examines the effects of hunting on wildlife in tropical forests. It looks at the importance of hunting to local communities and looks at institutional challenges of resource management.

Slow violence from climate change, toxic drift, deforestation, oil spills, and the environmental aftermath of war takes place gradually and often invisibly. Rob Nixon focuses on the inattention we have paid to the lethality of many environmental crises, in contrast with the sensational, spectacle-driven messaging that impels public activism today.

The Cambridge County Geographies were designed to provide a series of concise guides to British regions. This guide to Breconshire by Christopher J. Evans was first published in 1912 and contains numerous illustrative figures as well as a list of the chief towns and villages within the county.

Beginning with an introduction to soil ecosystems, this work reveals the unseen labors of underground organisms maintaining the rich fertility of the earth as they recycle nutrients between the living and mineral worlds. It introduces readers to an array of creatures: wolf spiders with glowing red eyes, snails with 120 rows of teeth, and more.

Suitable for dinosaur enthusiasts, art lovers and budding illustrators, this book is filled with artwork and paleontology.

Meaningful places offer a vital counterbalance to the forces of globalization and sameness that are overtaking our world, and are an essential elemin the search for solutions to currsustainability challenges. In Native to Nowhere, author Tim Beatley draws on extensive research and travel to communities across North America and Europe to offer a practical examination of the concepts of place and place-building in contemporary life. Tim Beatley reviews the many currchallenges to place, considers trends and factors that have undermined place and place commitments, and discusses in detail a number of innovative ideas and compelling visions for strengthening place. Native to Nowhere brings together a wide range of new ideas and insights about sustainability and community, and introduces readers to a hof innovative projects and initiatives. Native to Nowhere is a compelling source of information and ideas for anyone seeking to resist place homogenization and build upon the unique qualities of their local environmand community.

Ever since the first human settlements 10,000 years ago, weeds have dogged our footsteps. They are there as the punishment of 'thorns and thistles' in "Genesis" and, two millennia later, as a symbol of "Flanders Field". The author examines how we have tried to define them, explain their persistence, and draw moral lessons from them.

This text offers a critique of the ideological roots of the "Deep Ecology" movement spreading throughout Germany, France and the United States. The author examines European legal cases concerning the status and rights of animals and key ideas that German Romanticism embraced.

The Eden Project's Biomes, the world's largest conservatories, are the symbol of a living theatre of plants and people and their interdependence, of regeneration and of a forum for the exploration of possible futures. This book tells the story of the Eden Project, of its conception, design and construction, and personalities who made it happen.

Atlantic salmon and brown trout evolved in the Atlantic basin, Atlantic salmon in North America and Europe, brown trout in Europe, Northern Africa and Western Asia.

An amazing true story that has inspired the major Hollywood motion picture this Christmas, to be repackaged for release alongside the film. We Bought a Zoo is about one young family, a broken down zoo, and the wild animals that changed their lives forever. When Ben [played by Damon] and his wife Katherine [played by Johansson] sold their small flat in Primrose Hill, upped sticks with their children and invested their savings into a dilapidated zoo on the edge of Dartmoor, they were prepared for a challenge and a momentous change in all their lives. With over 200 exotic animals to care for - including an African lion, a wolf pack, a Brazilian tapir and a jaguar - Ben's hands, and those of his wife, children and tiny team of keepers, were full. What they weren't prepared for was Katherine's devastating second brain cancer diagnosis. Ben found himself juggling the daunting responsibilities of managing the park's staff and finances, while holding the bailiffs at bay and caring for his wife. A moving and entertaining story of courage and a family's attempts to rebuild a zoo, and carry on after Katherine's tragic death.

A Global Catastrophic Risk is one that has the potential to inflict serious damage to human well-being on a global scale. This book focuses on such risks arising from natural catastrophes (Earth-based or beyond), nuclear war, terrorism, biological weapons, totalitarianism, advanced nanotechnology, artificial intelligence and social collapse.

This landmark work, first published by Sierra Club Books in 1988, has established itself as a foundational volume in the ecological canon. In it, noted cultural historian Thomas Berry provides nothing less than a new intellectual-ethical framework for the human community by positing planetary well-being as the measure of all human activity.Drawing on the wisdom of Western philosophy, Asian thought, and Native American traditions, as well as contemporary physics and evolutionary biology, Berry offers a new perspective that recasts our understanding of science, technology, politics, religion, ecology, and education. He shows us why it is important for us to respond to the Earth’s need for planetary renewal, and what we must do to break free of the “technological trance” that drives a misguided dream of progress. Only then, he suggests, can we foster mutually enhancing human-Earth relationships that can heal our traumatized global biosystem.

Many materials and systems have been used to provide roof coverings, and the book provides information about their technological evolution, the processes causing deterioration, and ways of assessing problems and solutions.