“At low tide, the wind blowing across Spartina grass sounds like wind of the prairie. When the tide is in, the gentle music of moving water is added to the prairie rustle…. ”
One of nature’s greatest gifts is the string of salt marshes that edges the East Coast from Newfoundland to Florida — a ribbon of green growth, part solid land, part scurrying water. Life and Death of the Salt Marsh shows how these marshes are developed, what kinds of life inhabit them, how enormously they have contributed to man, and how ruthlessly man is destroying them.
A serious but often overlooked impact of the random, unplanned growth commonly known as sprawl is its effect on economic and racial polarization. Sprawl-fueled growth pushes people further apart geographically, politically, economically, and socially. Atlanta, Georgia, one of the fastest-growing areas in the country, offers a striking example of sprawl-induced stratification.”Sprawl City” uses a multi-disciplinary approach to analyze and critique the emerging crisis resulting from urban sprawl in the ten-county Atlanta metropolitan region. Local experts including sociologists, lawyers, urban planners, economists, educators, and health care professionals consider sprawl-related concerns as core environmental justice and civil rights issues.
Contributors focus on institutional constraints that are embedded in urban sprawl, considering how government housing, education, and transportation policies have aided and in some cases subsidized separate but unequal economic development and segregated neighborhoods. They offer analysis of the causes and consequences of urban sprawl, and outline policy recommendations and an action agenda for coping with sprawl-related problems, both in Atlanta and around the country.Contributors are Natalie Brown, Robert D. Bullard, William W. Buzbee, James Chapman, Dennis Creech, Russell W. Irvine, Charles Jaret, Chad G. Johnson, Glenn S. Johnson, Kurt Phillips, Elizabeth P. Ruddiman, and Angel O. Torres.The book illuminates the rising class and racial divisions underlying uneven growth and development, and provides a timely source of information for anyone concerned with those issues, including the growing environmental justice movement as well as planners, policyanalysts, public officials, community leaders, and students of public policy, geography, or planning.
Humans have been producing food using the same paradigm for 10,000 years. But the burden of a growing population and the impacts of an industrial approach to farming threaten the entire enterprise. We are working toward a solution.
In this book Richard N. L. Andrews looks at American environmental policy over the past four hundred years, shows how it affects environmental issues and public policy decisions today, and poses the central policy challenges for the future. This second edition brings the book up to date through President George W. Bush’s first term and gives the current state of American environmental politics and policy.
“A guide to what every organizational decision maker, public and private, needs to know in an era in which environmental issues have become global.”—Lynton K. Caldwell, Public Administration Review
“A wonderful text for students and scholars of environmental history and environmental policy.”—William L. Andreen, Environmental History
Economist Kate Raworth, Doughnut Economics/Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute/Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. From Donald Trump to Brexit, the evidence is everywhere: neoliberalism is dying. So how can we create an economic system that works for the 21st century?
http://www.ted.com At his carpet company, Ray Anderson has increased sales and doubled profits while turning the traditional “take / make / waste” industrial system on its head. In a gentle, understated way, he shares a powerful vision for sustainable commerce.
What If A Solution To Climate Change Was Beneath Your Feet?
Soil is a living universe beneath our feet. As important to our lives as clean air and water, soil also holds a potential solution to the global climate crisis. Increasing numbers of scientists, farmers and ranchers are implementing innovative land use practices that build fertile soil and sequester atmospheric carbon These methods of land management have the potential to provide us with nutritious food, improved human health, cleaner water, and a healthier planet for all.
World wide, most soils are depleted of carbon. The atmosphere contains an excess of carbon in the form of CO2, a climate change causing gas. What if that CO2 could be removed and stored in our carbon-hungry soil through land management practices? Find out how in The Soil Solution.
The Soil Solution to Climate Change was one of thirteen films featured in A Climate of Change Tour sponsored by 350.org, TRUST campaign and Wild and Scenic Film Festival. It has screened at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Sausalito Film Festival, Awareness Festival, Davis Film Festival, Wild and Scenic Film Tour 2013 and the One Earth Film Festival.
Anything that we do to increase soil fertility could be a step in reversing climate change.
Here’s what you can do:
What Goes Up Must Come Down!- Cover bare soil with plants! Fertile soil is a natural sink for atmospheric carbon; the very same carbon that contributes to climate change. Excess carbon can be pulled out of the atmosphere by photosynthesis and into plants and the soil where it can have a beneficial effect.
Support Farmers and Ranchers Who Treat The Soil Like Gold- Buy from local food producers who increase soil fertility by using climate friendly agricultural methods including no or low-till plowing, cover cropping, composting and organic farming. If you eat meat, buy grass-fed beef from ranchers who practice holistic or rotational grazing methods that mimic the natural patterns found in nature.
If You Grow Your Own Food, Grow Your Own Soil- If you grow food, take care of your soil. Increase soil fertility by avoiding the use of toxic synthetic pesticides, fertilizers and herbicides on your garden or lawn. These poisons kill microorganisms that reside in and on the soil. These organisms perform numerous ecosystem services; including providing nutrients for plants, creating soil humus and loam and increasing plant health. The soil is filled with billions of unemployed microorganisms ready and willing to take on the job of providing nutrients to plants and indirectly to you.
Increase Your Skill Set- If you feel hopeless about climate change- it’s time to take action. Learn how to grow food without increasing atmospheric CO2. Take a course in organic gardening or regenerative farming. If you work with animals, learn about the benefits of rotational grazing. Get to know your local soil microbes and the Soil Food Web.
Richard Teague addresses how land managers can base decisions for sustainable land use on the principles of ecosystem function. He will describe his studies of adaptive rangeland management, land restoration and carbon storage.
From Biodiversity for a Livable Climate conference: “Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming”
Saturday November 22nd, 2014
Seth Itzkan is a futurist and advocate for climate action and eco-restoration through the holistic management of grasslands restoration. He has spent months in Africa observing Holistic Management and its extraordinary positive effects on desertified semi-arid grasslands. He is also on the Advisory Board Chair of Biodiveristy for a Livable Climate.
There are eco-restoration successes all over the world, in many different ecosystems. Here are some examples from three of our speakers who have seen it first-hand.
From Biodiversity for a Livable Climate conference: “Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming”
Friday November 21st, 2014
Welcome to Transition Studies. To prosper for very much longer on the changing Earth humankind will need to move beyond its current fossil-fueled civilization toward one that is sustained on recycled materials and renewable energy. This is not a trivial shift. It will require a major transition in all aspects of our lives.
This weblog explores the transition to a sustainable future on our finite planet. It provides links to current news, key documents from government sources and non-governmental organizations, as well as video documentaries about climate change, environmental ethics and environmental justice concerns.
The links are listed here to be used in whatever manner they may be helpful in public information campaigns, course preparation, teaching, letter-writing, lectures, class presentations, policy discussions, article writing, civic or Congressional hearings and citizen action campaigns, etc. For further information on this blog see: About this weblog. and How to use this weblog.
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