Social Ecology

An entertaining and enlightening exploration of why waste matters, this cultural history explores an often ignored subject matter and makes a compelling argument for a deeper understanding of human and animal waste. Approaching the subject from a variety of perspectives - evolutionary, ecological, and cultural - this examination shows how integral excrement is to biodiversity, agriculture, public health, food production and distribution, and global ecosystems.

Dès sa première édition, en 2012, cet œuvre a été la première à décrire la dimension mondiale des alternatives économiques, démocratiques et écologiques mises en place par la société civile. Elle a séduit toute une génération qui se reconnaît dans cette invention d'un nouveau monde et a reçu le Prix 2013 du Livre de l'Environnement. Avec cette 2ème édition, enrichie de nouvelles alternatives, l'auteure poursuit son voyage.

In its 2001 report on global climate, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of the United Nations prominently featured the "Hockey Stick", a chart showing global temperature data over the past 1,000 years. The Hockey Stick demonstrated that temperature had risen with the increase in industrialization and use of fossil fuels. The inescapable conclusion was that worldwide human activity since the industrial age had raised CO2 levels, trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and warming the planet.

A groundbreaking popular psychology book that explores the deep connection between our body and our brain. Over decades of study, University of Virginia psychologist Dennis Proffitt has shown that we are each living our own personal version of Gulliver’s Travels, where the size and shape of...

The monumental statues of Easter Island, both so magisterial and so forlorn, gazing out in their imposing rows over the island’s barren landscape, have been the source of great mystery ever since the island was first discovered by Europeans on Easter Sunday 1722. How could the ancient people who inhabited this tiny speck of land, the most remote in the vast expanse of the Pacific islands, have built such monumental works?

In his illuminating book One Kiss or Two?, Andy Scott - a well-traveled former diplomat and no stranger to botched first contacts himself - takes a closer look at what greetings are all about. In discovering how they have developed over human history, he uncovers a kaleidoscopic world of etiquette, body-language, evolution, neuroscience, anthropology, and history. Through in-depth research and his personal experiences, and with the help of experts, Scott takes listeners on a captivating journey through a subject far richer than we might have expected.

Authors Paul Warde, Libby Robin, and Sverker Sörlin trace the emergence of the concept of the environment following World War II, a period characterized by both hope for a new global order and fear of humans' capacity for almost limitless destruction. It was at this moment that a new idea and a new narrative about the planet-wide impact of people's behavior emerged, closely allied to anxieties for the future. With the rise of "the environment", the authors argue, came new expertise, making certain kinds of knowledge crucial to understanding the future of our planet.

This is the first book to trace the fascinating parallel history of law and science from antiquity to modern times, showing how the two disciplines have always influenced each other - until recently. In the past few years, the scientific paradigm has shifted dramatically, from seeing the natural world as a kind of cosmic machine to understanding it as a network of fluidly interacting communities. But law is stuck in a mechanistic, 17th-century view that the world is made up of discrete individual parts.

Et si on arrêtait de se voiler la face ? On ne sauvera pas le monde avec des pailles en bambou, du café équitable ou des sprays au vinaigre. À force d'en entendre parler, on croirait presque à une transition écologique... Pourtant, ce n'est pas en remplaçant la consommation classique par des achats "responsables" que l'on va stopper les catastrophes en cours ! Depuis des décennies, l'écologie produit des discours tièdes, habilement récupérés par le capitalisme.

The ocean sustains life on our planet, from absorbing carbon to regulating temperatures. But as we exhaust the resources on land, its reserves are increasingly dredged and extracted to fuel new industry. Today we are facing two urgent challenges at sea: massive environmental destruction, and spiraling inequality in the ocean economy. Chris Armstrong reveals how existing governing institutions are failing to respond to the most pressing problems of our time.

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.

As Brits we pride ourselves as stoic defenders, boasting a record of resistance dating back to 1066. Yet, even a cursory examination of the natural world reveals that while interlopers of the human variety may have been kept at bay, our islands have been invaded, conquered and settled by an endless succession of animals, plants, fungi and other alien lifeforms that apparently belong elsewhere. Indeed it’s often hard to work out what actually is native, and what is foreign.

Although it is widely understood that energy and water are the world’s two most critical resources, their vital interconnections and vulnerabilities are less often recognized. This farsighted audiobook offers a new, holistic way of thinking about energy and water - a big picture approach that reveals the interdependence of the two resources, identifies the seriousness of the challenges, and lays out an optimistic approach with an array of solutions to ensure continuing sustainability.

One of the great science and health revelations of our time is the danger posed by meat-eating. Every day, it seems, we are warned about the harm producing and consuming meat can do to the environment and our bodies. Many of us have tried to limit how much meat we consume, and many of us have tried to give it up altogether. But it is not easy to resist the smoky, cured, barbecued, and fried delights that tempt us.

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.

The Blue Communities Project is dedicated to three primary things: that access to clean, drinkable water is a basic human right; that municipal and community water will be held in public hands; and that single-use plastic water bottles will not be available in public spaces. The movement has been growing around the world for a decade. In Whose Water Is It, Anyway?, renowned water justice activist Maude Barlow recounts her own education in water issues as she and her fellow grassroots water warriors woke up to the immense pressures facing water in a warming world.

Voilà deux siècles que la civilisation industrielle libère les hommes de la misère. Mais les apôtres de l'écologie radicale accusent les sociétés modernes d'avoir acheté leur confort au détriment de l'environnement, quitte à dépeindre le passé comme le paradis perdu qu'il n'a jamais été.

Down to the Wire is a sober and eloquent assessment of climate destabilization and an urgent call to action. David Orr describes how political negligence, an economy based on the insatiable consumption of trivial goods, and a disdain for the well-being of future generations have brought us to the tipping point that biologist Edward O. Wilson calls "[T]he bottleneck".

Caradonna's unique and concise history broadens our understanding of what "sustainability" means, revealing how it progressed from a relatively marginal concept to an ideal that shapes everything from individual lifestyles, government and corporate strategies, and even national and international policy. For anyone seeking understand the history of those striving to make the world a better place to live, here's a place to start.

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.